The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line betwee ...

and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and separated from

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

by the Andaman Sea. It comprises two island groups, the Andaman Islands (partly) and the Nicobar Islands, separated by the 150 km (100 mile) wide

Ten Degree Channel The Ten Degree Channel is a channel that separates the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands from each other in the Bay of Bengal. The two sets of islands together form the Indian Union Territory (UT) of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This channel ...

(on the 10°N parallel), with the Andaman islands to the north of this

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

, and the Nicobar islands to the south (or by 179 km; 111 miles). The Andaman Sea lies to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the west. The island chains are thought to be a submerged extension of the Arakan Mountains. The territory's capital is the city of

Port Blair Port Blair () is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South An ...

. The total land area of the islands is approximately . The territory is divided into three districts: the

Nicobar District Nicobar district is one of three districts in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The district's administrative territory encompasses all of the Nicobar Islands, which are located in the Indian Ocean, between the Bay of Be ...

with

Car Nicobar Car Nicobar ( in Car language) is the northernmost of the Nicobar Islands. It is also one of three local administrative divisions of the Indian district of Nicobar, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Annual ra ...

as its capital, the

South Andaman district South Andaman district is one of the 3 districts of the Indian Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands located in the Bay of Bengal. Port Blair town, the capital of the Union Territory is the district headquarters. The area covered by this d ...

with Port Blair as its capital, and the

North and Middle Andaman district North and Middle Andaman district is one of the 3 districts of the Indian Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands located in the Bay of Bengal. Mayabunder town is the district headquarters. The area covered by this district is 3251.85 k ...

with

Mayabunder Mayabunder is a town and a tehsil in the northern part of Middle Andaman Island, Andaman Archipelago, India. The name is also spelled Maya Bunder or Maya Bandar. As of 2001, the county had 23,912 inhabitants, of which 3182 were in the town.Gove ...

as its capital. The islands host the

Andaman and Nicobar Command The Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) is the first and only tri-service theater command of the Indian Armed Forces, based at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India. It was created in 2001 to safeguard India ...

, the only tri-service geographical command of the

Indian Armed Forces The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force.—— Additionally, the Indian Armed Forces are supported by th ...

. The Andaman Islands are also home to the

Sentinelese people The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group ...

, an

uncontacted tribe Uncontacted peoples are groups of indigenous peoples living without sustained contact with neighbouring communities and the world community. Groups who decide to remain uncontacted are referred to as indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. ...

. The Sentinelese might be the only people currently known to not have reached further than a Paleolithic level of technology; however, this is disputed, as evidence of metalwork was found on their island.

History

First inhabitants

The earliest archaeological evidence documents some 2,200 years. However, genetic and cultural studies suggest that the indigenous

Andamanese The Andamanese are the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal in Southeast Asia. The Andamanese peoples are among the various groups ...

people may have been isolated from other populations during the Middle Paleolithic, which ended 30,000 years ago. Since that time, the Andamanese have diversified into linguistically and culturally distinct territorial groups. The Nicobar Islands appear to have been populated by people of various backgrounds. By the time of European contact, the indigenous inhabitants had coalesced into the

Nicobarese people The Nicobarese people are an Austroasiatic-speaking people of the Nicobar Islands, a chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal north of Sumatra, forming part of the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Only 12 of the 19 islands ...

, speaking an

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

language, and the

Shompen The Shompen or Shom Pen are the indigenous people of the interior of Great Nicobar Island, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Shompen are a designated Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Tribe. ...

, whose language is of uncertain affiliation. Neither language is related to Andamanese.

Chola Period

Rajendra Chola II Rajendra Chola II (997 CE - 1064 CE) often referred to as Rajendradeva Chola was a Chola emperor who reigned from 1052 CE to 1064 CE. He was made Rajendra succeeded his brother Rajadhiraja I after his death at the Battle of Koppam.''The ...

(1051–1063 CE), used the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a strategic naval base to launch an expedition against the Srivijaya Empire (Indonesia). The Cholas called the island Ma-Nakkavaram ("great open/naked land"), found in the

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

inscription of 1050 CE. European traveller Marco Polo (12th–13th century) also referred to this island as 'Necuverann' and a corrupted form of the Tamil name Nakkavaram would have led to the modern name Nicobar during the British colonial period.

Maratha imperial period

The islands became a temporary shipping port of the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Sh ...

and its

navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

in the 17th century. The Maratha admiral

Kanhoji Angre Kanhoji Angre (Marathi: कान्होजी आंग्रे, anʱod͡ʒiː aːŋɡɾe, also known as Conajee Angria or Sarkhel Angré (August 1669 – 4 July 1729) was a chief of the Maratha Navy in present-day India. Kanhoji became k ...

established a basic naval dominance in the islands and played a role in the annexation of the islands to India.

Danish colonial period and British rule

The history of organised European

colonisation Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

on the islands began when settlers from the

Danish East India Company The Danish East India Company ( da, Ostindisk Kompagni) refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered companies. The first company operated between 1616 and 1650. The second company existed between 1670 and 1729, however, in 1730 it was re-fo ...

arrived in the Nicobar Islands on 12 December 1755. On 1 January 1756, the Nicobar Islands were made a Danish colony, first named New Denmark, and later (December 1756) Frederick's Islands (''Frederiksøerne''). During 1754–1756 they were administrated from

Tranquebar Tharangambadi (), formerly Tranquebar ( da, Trankebar, ), is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kave ...

(in continental Danish India). The islands were repeatedly abandoned due to outbreaks of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

between 14 April 1759 and 19 August 1768, from 1787 to 1807/05, 1814 to 1831, 1830 to 1834 and gradually from 1848 for good. From 1 June 1778 to 1784,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

mistakenly assumed that Denmark had abandoned its claims to the Nicobar Islands and attempted to establish a colony on them, renaming them Theresa Islands. In 1789, the British set up a naval base and penal colony on Chatham Island next to Great Andaman, where now lies the town of

. Two years later the colony was moved to

Port Cornwallis Port Cornwallis is a port situated on Ross Island, off the NE coast of North Andaman. This should not be confused with Ross Island, which is opposite Port Blair, South Andaman South Andaman Island is the southernmost island of the Great Andam ...

on Great Andaman, but it was abandoned in 1796 due to disease. In 1858, the British again established a colony at Port Blair, which proved to be more permanent. The primary purpose was to set up a

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

for criminal convicts from the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

. The

Cellular Jail The Cellular Jail, also known as Kālā Pānī (), was a British colonial prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The prison was used by the colonial government of India for the purpose of exiling criminals and political prisoners. Many ...

, which was used to house

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s, was constructed on the islands.

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

made an attempt at buying the Nicobar Islands from Denmark between 1864 and 1865. The Italian Minister of Agriculture and Commerce

Luigi Torelli Luigi Torelli (9 February 1810 – 14 November 1887) was born in Villa di Tirano, in the Valtellina of Lombardy, at the time part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Being a patriot, he took part in the Five Days of Milan, most noted in drivi ...

started a negotiation that looked promising, but failed due to the unexpected end of his office and the second La Marmora Cabinet. The negotiations were interrupted and never brought up again.

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

's presence in the territory ended formally on 16 October 1868 when it sold the rights to the Nicobar Islands to Britain, which made them part of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

in 1869. In 1872, the Andaman and Nicobar islands were united under a single chief commissioner at

World War II

The British Occupation of the Nicobar Islands, 1945 SE5438

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the islands were practically under Japanese control, only nominally under the authority of the Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind of

Subhash Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

. Bose visited the islands during the war and renamed them as "Shaheed-Dweep" (Martyr Island) and "Swaraj-dweep" (Self-rule Island). General Loganathan, of the Indian National Army, was made the Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. On 22 February 1944 he along with four INA officers—Major Mansoor Ali Alvi, Sub. Lt. Md. Iqbal, Lt. Suba Singh, and stenographer Srinivasan—arrived at Lambaline Airport in

. On 21 March 1944, the Headquarters of the Civil Administration was established near the

gurdwara A gurdwara (sometimes written as gurudwara) (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ''guradu'ārā'', meaning "Door to the Guru") is a place of assembly and worship for Sikhs. Sikhs also refer to gurdwaras as ''Gurdwara Sahib''. People from all faiths ...

at Aberdeen Bazaar. On 2 October 1944, Col. Loganathan handed over the charge to Maj. Alvi and left Port Blair, never to return. Japanese Vice Admiral Hara Teizo and Major-General Tamenori Sato surrendered the islands to Brigadier J A Salomons, commander of 116th Indian Infantry Brigade, and Chief Administrator Noel K Patterson, Indian Civil Service, on 7 October 1945, in a ceremony performed on the Gymkhana Ground, Port Blair.

After independence

During the independence of both India (1947) and

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(1948), the departing British announced their intention to retain posession of the island chain, and use them to resettle Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmese on these islands, to form their own nation, although this never materialised. The islands, as a possession of the British Indian Empire, claimed as an asset to allocated, by both the Congress Party and Muslim League, during partition negotiations. The Islands were later used to resettle peoples displaced by the partitions of the British Indian Empire, with a substantial number of displaced East Bengali families offered land on the islands, in exchange for clearing forests and establishing agricultual colonies. Responsibility for the administration of the islands was transfered from Viceroy Mountbatten, to President

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

, in 1950, and was declared as a union territory of the India, in 1956. India has been developing defence facilities on the islands since the 1980s. The islands now have a key position in India's strategic role in the Bay of Bengal and the

Malacca Strait The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...

2004 tsunami

On 26 December 2004, the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were devastated by a high

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

following an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean. More than 2,000 people died, 4,000 children were orphaned or suffered the loss of one parent, and at least 40,000 people were rendered homeless. More than 46,000 people were injured. The worst affected Nicobar islands were Katchal and

Indira Point Indira Point, the southernmost point of India's territory, is a village in the Nicobar district at Great Nicobar Island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India. It is located in the Great Nicobar tehsil. Rondo Island, Indonesia's northernmost i ...

; the latter subsided and was partially submerged in the ocean. The lighthouse at Indira Point was damaged but has been repaired since. A significant portion of the union territory was submerged and subsequently lost to sea. The territory which measured before the tsunami now stands at . While the locals and tourists on the islands suffered the greatest casualties from the tsunami, most of the aboriginal people survived on account of oral traditions passed down over generations that warned them to evacuate from the large waves that follow earthquakes.

Geography

There are 572

islands An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the territory having an area of . Of these 38 are permanently inhabited. The islands extend from 6° to 14° North latitudes and from 92° to 94° East longitudes. The Andamans are separated from the Nicobar group by a channel (the

) some wide. The highest point is located in North Andaman Island ( Saddle Peak at ). The Andaman group has 325 islands which cover an area of while the Nicobar group has only 247 islands with an area of . Sea shore at Andaman and Nicobar Islands The capital of the union territory, Port Blair, is located from

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, from

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museu ...

and from

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. They are grouped with

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...

. The northernmost point of the Andaman and Nicobars group is away from the mouth of the Hooghly River and from Myanmar Mainland. Indira Point at 6°45’10″N and 93°49’36″E at the southern tip of the southernmost island, Great Nicobar, is the southernmost point of India and lies only from Sumatra island in

. The only volcano in

, Barren Island, is located in Andaman and Nicobar. It is an active volcano and had last erupted in 2017. It also has a mud volcano situated in Baratang Island. These mud volcanoes have erupted sporadically, with recent eruptions in 2005 believed to have been associated with the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The previous major eruption recorded was on 18 February 2003. The locals call this mud volcano ''Jalki''. There are other volcanoes in the area. This island's beaches, mangrove creeks, limestone caves, and mud volcanoes are some of the physical features. In December 2018, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

, who was on a two-day visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, renamed three of the islands as a tribute to Subhas Chandra Bose. Ross Island was renamed as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island; Neil Island as Shaheed Dweep Island; and Havelock Island as Swaraj Island. The PM made this announcement during a speech at the Netaji Stadium, marking the 75th anniversary of the hoisting of the Indian flag by Bose there.

Flora

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have a tropical rainforest canopy, made of a mixed flora with elements from Indian, Myanmar, Malaysian and endemic floral strains. So far, about 2,200 varieties of plants have been recorded, out of which 200 are endemic and 1,300 do not occur in mainland India. The South Andaman forests have a profuse growth of

epiphytic An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

vegetation, mostly ferns, and orchids. The Middle Andamans harbours mostly moist

deciduous forests In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

. North Andamans is characterised by the wet evergreen type, with plenty of woody climbers. The North Nicobar Islands (including Car Nicobar and Battimalv) are marked by the complete absence of evergreen forests, while such forests form the dominant vegetation in the central and southern islands of the Nicobar group. Grasslands occur only in the Nicobars, and while

are common in the Andamans, they are almost absent in the Nicobar. The present forest coverage is claimed to be 86.2% of the total land area. Nicobar Pigeon 820

This typical forest coverage is made up of twelve types, namely: # Giant

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

# Andamans tropical evergreen forest # Southern hilltop

tropical evergreen forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

# Canebrakes # Wet bamboo brakes # Andamans semi-evergreen forest # Andamans moist deciduous forest # Andamans secondary moist deciduous forest #

Littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal a ...

forest # Mangrove forest # Brackish water mixed forest # Submontane forest

Fauna

This tropical rain forest, despite its isolation from adjacent landmasses, is surprisingly rich with a diversity of animal life. About 50 varieties of forest mammals are found to occur in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Some are endemic, including the Andaman wild boar. Rodents are the largest group with 26 species, followed by 14 species of bat. Among the larger mammals there are two endemic varieties of wild boar, ''Sus scrofa andamanensis'' from Andaman and ''Sus scrofa nicobaricus'' from Nicobar, which are protected by the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 (Sch I).

Saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats and brackish wetlands from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It has been list ...

is also found in abundance. The State Animal of Andaman is the

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest m ...

, also known as the sea cow, which can be found in

Little Andaman Little Andaman Island (Onge: ''Gaubolambe'') is the fourth largest of the Andaman Islands of India with an area of 707 km2, lying at the southern end of the archipelago. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the ...

. Around 1962 there was an attempt to introduce the leopard, which was unsuccessful because of unsuitable habitat. These were ill-considered moves as exotic introductions can cause havoc to island flora and fauna. Elephants also can be found in forested or mountainous areas of the islands; they were brought over from the mainland to help with timber extraction in 1883. Elephant on the Andaman and Nicobar seashore About 270 species of birds are found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 14 species of which are endemic. The islands' many

caves A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

are nesting grounds for the edible-nest swiftlet, whose nests are prized in China for

bird's nest soup Edible bird's nests are bird nests created by edible-nest swiftlets, Indian swiftlets, and other swiftlets using solidified saliva, which are harvested for human consumption. They are particularly prized in Chinese culture due to their rarity ...

.R. Sankaran (1999),
The impact of nest collection on the Edible-nest Swiftlet in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
''. Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, India. The islands also serve as a stopover site for several migratory birds such as

Horsfield's bronze cuckoo Horsfield's bronze cuckoo (''Chrysococcyx basalis'') is a small cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. Its size averages 22g and is distinguished by its green and bronze iridescent colouring on its back and incomplete brown barring from neck to tail. Hor ...

, Zappey's flycatcher and Javan pond heron. The territory is home for about 225 species of butterflies and

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

s. Ten species are endemic to these Islands.

Mount Harriet National Park Mount Harriet National Park, officially renamed as Mount Manipur National Park, is a national park located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India. The park, established in 1969, covers about 4.62 km2 (18.00 mi2). ...

is one of the richest areas of butterfly and moth diversity on Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The islands are well known for prized shellfish, especially from the genera ''

Turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pr ...

'', ''

Trochus ''Trochus'' is a genus of medium-sized to large, top-shaped sea snails with an operculum and a pearly inside to their shells, marine gastropod molluscs in the subfamily Trochinae of the family Trochidae, the top snails.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. ( ...

'', ''

Murex ''Murex'' is a genus of medium to large sized predatory tropical sea snails. These are carnivorous marine gastropod molluscs in the family Muricidae, commonly called "murexes" or "rock snails".Houart, R.; Gofas, S. (2010). Murex Linnaeus, 175 ...

'' and ''

Nautilus The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in ...

''. Earliest recorded commercial exploitation began during 1929. Many cottage industries produce a range of decorative shell items.

Giant clam The giant clams are the members of the clam genus '' Tridacna'' that are the largest living bivalve mollusks. There are actually several species of "giant clams" in the genus '' Tridacna'', which are often misidentified for ''Tridacna gigas'', ...

green mussel ''Perna canaliculus'', the New Zealand green-lipped mussel, also known as the New Zealand mussel, the greenshell mussel, ''kuku'', and ''kutai'', is a bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae (the true mussels). ''P. canaliculus'' has economic i ...

s and

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

s support edible shellfishery. The shells of scallops,

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

s, and cockle are burnt in kilns to produce edible

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

. There are 96 wildlife sanctuaries, nine national parks and one biosphere reserve in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Demographics

Census of India, the population of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands was 379,944, of which 202,330 (53.25%) were male and 177,614 (46.75%) were female. The sex ratio was 878 females per 1,000 males. Only 10% of the population lived in Nicobar islands. 150 years ago, the original population of the islands – the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese, were estimated to be around 5,000. The population of islands increased massively due to the policies of Govt of India into islands under

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

in the late 1960s, that brought settlers from other parts of the country. The areas and populations (at the 2001 and 2011 Censuses) of the three districts are: There remain approximately 400–450 indigenous Andamanese in the Andaman islands, the Jarawa and

Sentinelese The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group ...

in particular maintaining steadfast independence and refusing most attempts at contact. In the Nicobar Islands, the indigenous people are the Nicobarese, or ''Nicobari'', living throughout many of the islands, and the

, restricted to the hinterland of

Great Nicobar Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra. History The Nicobar Island has been well known to Indian mariners since the time of the seafaring Cholas https://www.britannica.com/place/Nicoba ...

. More than 2,000 people belonging to the

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic l ...

tribe live in the

tehsil of North Andaman district, almost all of whom are Christians. Despite their tribal origins, the Karen of Andamans have

Other Backward Class The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, ...

(OBC) status in the Andamans.

Languages

Indigenous to the Nicobar Islands are the five

Nicobarese languages The Nicobarese languages or Nicobaric languages, form an isolated group of about half a dozen closely related Austroasiatic languages, spoken by most of the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands of India. They have a total of about 30,000 speakers ...

, which form part of the

language family and are spoken by about people, or 7.6% of the population of the union territory. The Andaman Islands are home to about a dozen endangered or extinct

Andamanese languages The Andamanese languages are a pair of language families spoken by the Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. The two language families are Great Andamanese and Ongan, while the Sentinelese language is spoken by an uncon ...

, which constitute at least two families that are unrelated to each other or to any other language group. The majority of the population, however, are speakers of immigrant languages. These include

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

(the first language of 28.5% of the inhabitants of the union territory),

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

(15.2%),

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

(13.2%),

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

(12.9%),

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

(7.2%). Sadri (5.5%), and Kurukh (4%).

is the official language of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, while

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

is declared an additional official language for communication purposes.

Religion

Sri-vetrimalai-murugan-temple-port-blair-tourism-entry-fee-timings-holidays-reviews-header

The majority of people of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

s (69.45%), with

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

forming a large minority of 21.7% of the population, according to the 2011 census of India. There is a significant Muslim (8.51%) minority.

Administration

In 1874, the British had placed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in one administrative territory headed by a Chief Commissioner as its judicial administrator. On 1 August 1974, the Nicobar islands were hived off into another revenue district with district headquarters at Car Nicobar under a Deputy Commissioner. In 1982, the post of Lieutenant Governor was created who replaced the Chief Commissioner as the head of administration. Subsequently, a "Pradesh council" with Councillors as representatives of the people was constituted to advise the Lieutenant Governor. The Islands sends one representative to

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

from its

Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Lok Sabha constituency) Andaman and Nicobar Islands Lok Sabha constituency is the only Lok Sabha (Parliamentary) constituency in the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It covers the entire union territory. Until the 1967 general election, the Member of P ...

Administrative divisions

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is divided into three districts: # North and Middle Andaman (Capital:

) #

South Andaman South Andaman Island is the southernmost island of the Great Andaman and is home to the majority of the population of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman a ...

(Capital:

) # Nicobar (Capital:

) Each district is further divided into sub-divisions and

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

Sub-divisions and taluks of North and Middle Andaman district

* Diglipur Sub-Division **

Diglipur Diglipur (sometimes spelled Diglipore) is the largest town of North Andaman Island, in the Andaman Archipelago, India. It is located on the southern side of Aerial Bay, at above sea level, north of Port Blair. It is crossed by the Kalpong Riv ...

taluk * Mayabunder Sub-Division **

taluk **

Rangat Rangat is a town on the Middle Andaman Island, Andaman Archipelago. It is also one of the three counties (''tehsils'') administrative divisions of the North and Middle Andaman district, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of In ...

taluk

Sub-divisions and taluks of South Andaman district

* Port Blair Sub-Division **

taluk ** Ferrargunj taluk ** Jirkatang taluk (native Jarawa reservation) *

Ritchie's Archipelago Ritchie's Archipelago is a cluster of smaller islands which lie east of Great Andaman, the main island group of the Andaman Islands. The Islands belong to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andama ...

Sub-Division **

taluk ( Havelock Island) * Little Andaman Sub-Division **

taluk ( Hut Bay)

Sub-divisions and taluks of Nicobar district

* Car Nicobar Sub-Division **

taluk * Nancowrie Sub-Division ** Nancowrie taluk ** Kamorta taluk ** Teressa taluk ** Katchal taluk * Great Nicobar Sub-Division ** Little Nicobar taluk **

taluk ( Campbell Bay)

Economy

Agriculture

A total of of land is used for agriculture purposes. Paddy, the main food crop, is mostly cultivated in Andaman group of islands, whereas coconut and arecanut are the cash crops of Nicobar group of islands. Field crops, namely,

pulses In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

oilseeds Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fat ...

and vegetables are grown, followed by paddy during Rabi season. Different kinds of fruits such as mango,

sapota ''Manilkara zapota'', commonly known as sapodilla (), sapote, naseberry, nispero or chicle, is a long-lived, evergreen tree native to southern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. An example natural occurrence is in coastal Yucatán in the ...

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, banana, papaya, pineapple and

root crops Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans as food. Although botany distinguishes true roots (such as taproots and tuberous roots) from non-roots (such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers, although some contain both hypocotyl ...

are grown on hilly land owned by farmers. Spices such as pepper, clove,

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...

, and cinnamon are grown under a multi-tier cropping system.

Rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...

red oil {{See also, PUREX Red oil is defined as a substance of varying composition formed when an organic solution, typically tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP, an agent used for extracting heavy metals in nuclear reprocessing plants) and its diluent, comes in co ...

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

noni ''Morinda citrifolia'' is a fruit-bearing tree in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. Its native range extends across Southeast Asia and Australasia, and was spread across the Pacific by Polynesian sailors. The species is now cultivated throughout th ...

and cashew are grown on a limited scale in these islands.

Industry

There are 1,374 registered small-scale, village and handicraft units. Two units are export-oriented in the line of fish processing activity. Apart from this, there are shells and wood-based handicraft units. There are also four medium-sized industrial units. SSI units are engaged in the production of polythene bags, PVC conduit pipes and fittings, paints and varnishes, fiberglass and mini flour mills, soft drinks, and beverages, etc. Small scale and handicraft units are also engaged in shell crafts, bakery products, rice milling, furniture making, etc. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation has spread its wings in the field of tourism, fisheries, industries, and industrial financing and functions as authorised agents for Alliance Air. The Islands have become a tourist destination, largely due to its beaches and waters.

Tourism

Tourism to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is increasing due to the popularity of beaches and adventure sports like snorkelling and sea-walking. Plans to develop various islands under NITI (National Institute of Transforming India) Aayog is also in progress. Luxury resorts with participation from the Government are set up to plan in Avis Island, Smith Island and Long Island. A statue of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

In Port Blair, the main places to visit are the Cellular Jail, Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, Andaman Water sports complex, Chatham Saw Mill, Mini Zoo, Corbyn's cove, Chidiya Tapu, Wandoor Beach, Forest Museum, Anthropological Museum, Fisheries Museum, Naval Museum (Samudrika), Ross Island and North Bay Island. Viper Island which was earlier visited is now kept closed by the administration. Other places include Havelock island famous for Radhanagar Beach, Neil Island for Scuba diving/snorkeling/sea walking, Cinque Island, Saddle peak, Mt Harriet, and Mud Volcano. Diglipur, located at North Andaman is also getting popular in 2018 and many tourists have started visiting North Andaman as well. The southern group (Nicobar islands) is mostly inaccessible to tourists. Indian tourists do not require a permit to visit the Andaman Islands, but if they wish to visit any tribal areas they need a special permit from the Deputy Commissioner in Port Blair. Permits are required for foreign nationals. For foreign nationals arriving by air, these are granted upon arrival at Port Blair. According to official estimates, the flow of tourists tripled to nearly 430,000 in 2016-17 from 130,000 in 2008–09. The Radha Nagar beach was chosen as Asia's best beach in 2004.

Macro-economic trend

This is a chart of trend of gross state domestic product (GSDP) of Andaman and Nicobar Islands at market prices, estimated by the

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is a ministry of Government of India concerned with coverage and quality aspects of statistics released. The surveys conducted by the Ministry are based on scientific sampling metho ...

, with figures in millions of Indian rupees. Andaman and Nicobar Islands' gross state domestic product for 2004 was estimated at $354 million in current prices.

Power generation

With Japanese assistance, Southern Andaman Island will now have a 15-megawatt diesel

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an el ...

. This would be the first foreign investment of any kind allowed at this strategically significant island chain. This is believed to be an Indo-Japanese strategic initiative to strengthen civilian infrastructure in the vicinity of the

Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...

– a strategically important choke-point for the Chinese oil supply.

Education

B.ed

*Tagore Government College of Education

Degree

*Andaman and Nicobar college *

Jawaharlal Nehru Government College Jawaharlal Nehru Rajkeeya Mahavidyalaya, Port Blair , established in 1967, is the oldest college in Port Blair, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in science, arts and commerce. It is af ...

* Mahatma Gandhi Government College

Engineering

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Institute of Technology Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Institute of Technology, established in 1984, is oldest engineering college in Port Blair, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It offers degree and diploma in engineering and maritime programmes. The institute also o ...

Pondicherry University Pondicherry University, also known as PU, is a collegiate public central university located in Kalapet, Pondicherry in Union Territory of Puducherry, India. It was established by an Act of Parliament in 1985 by the Department of Higher Edu ...

(Port Blair-campus)

Law

* Andaman Law College

Medicine

Andaman and Nicobar Islands Institute of Medical Sciences Andaman and Nicobar Islands Institute of Medical Sciences, Port Blair is a medical school in Port Blair, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies b ...

Infrastructure

Mega projects

Government of India has proposed the development of

. A terminal, two townships, Solar Power and an strips will be created for logistics and tourism purposes. This will give boost to Nicobar Islands and expected to provide employment. However project is considered as threat to indigenous communities on Nicobar Islands.

Internet

Internet access on the islands used to be limited and unreliable, since all connectivity to the outside world had to go through satellite links.

Bharat Broadband Network BharatNet, also known as Bharat Broadband Network Limited, is a central public sector undertaking, set up by the Department of Telecommunications, a department under Ministry of Communications of the Government of India for the establishment ...

started work on laying a fibre optic

submarine cable Submarine cable is any electrical cable that is laid on the seabed, although the term is often extended to encompass cables laid on the bottom of large freshwater bodies of water. Examples include: *Submarine communications cable *Submarine power ...

running from the five islands to

on 30 December 2018, with completion expected in December 2019. On 10 August 2020, PM

formally inaugurated the

–Andaman undersea

Optical fibre cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...

which enables high-speed broadband connections in the Union Territory. The submarine cable also connects

to Swaraj Dweep,

, Kamorta,

, Long Island and

. The initial bandwidth of the cable is 400

Gbit/s In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...

, roughly 400 times more than what the islands possessed before the fibre link.

Ports

On 10 August 2020, PM

announced plans for the construction of a transshipment port in the

Great Nicobar Island Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra. History The Nicobar Island has been well known to Indian mariners since the time of the seafaring Cholas https://www.britannica.com/place/Nicobar- ...

at a cost of ₹10,000 crore to provide shippers an alternative to similar ports in the region. The move is aimed at improving the ease of doing business of the country and enhancing maritime logistics.

Transportation

Veer Savarkar International Airport Cargo vessel Sindhu for Andaman and Nicobar manufactured by CSL

The only civil airport of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is

Veer Savarkar International Airport Veer Savarkar International Airport is an international airport located south of Port Blair and is the main airport of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Originally known as "Port Blair Airport", it was renamed in 2002 after Vinayak D ...

near Port Blair. It has regular flights to

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

, and

. From 2016 onwards, night flights were also operated along with the day flights. Another mode of transport is ship which has routes from

and

. The journey takes approximately three days and two nights.

Popular culture

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle refers to the Andaman Islands in his Sherlock Holmes novel ''

The Sign of the Four ''The Sign of the Four'' (1890), also called ''The Sign of Four'', is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective. Plot ...

''. The

National Award The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate ...

winning

film ''

Kaalapani ''Kaalapani'' () is a 1996 Indian Malayalam-language epic historical drama film co-written and directed by Priyadarshan. Set in 1915, the film focuses on the lives of Indian independence activists incarcerated in the Cellular Jail (or ''Kāl ...

'' was set against backdrop of the Port Blair's Cellular Jail. It is one of the films that was extensively shot in the islands. Most parts of the song '' Life Of Ram'' got shot in this island which is featured in the 2018

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of P ...

film '96.

Gallery

Andaman Islands.jpg, Andaman Islands Andaman and Nicobar islands.JPG, Andaman and Nicobar islands The Coral Reef at the Andaman Islands.jpg, The coral reef at Havelock in Andaman Shaheed Island, Andamans, Mangrove beach, True wilderness.jpg, Mangrove trees on the beach, Shaheed Island Havelock Island, Canopy of tropical moist evergreen forest, Andaman Islands.jpg, Canopy of tropical rainforest AndamansAndNicobarIslands.jpg, The Andaman coast lined with coconut palms Seascape at Chidiyatapu, Andaman islands.jpg, Seascape at Chidiyatapu, Andaman islands

References

External links

Census of India
Provisional Population Totals
Andaman and Nicobar Administration Website
* *
Best Time to Visit Andaman and Nicobar Islands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andaman And Nicobar Islands Union territories of India Andaman Sea Dependent territories in Asia Islands of the Bay of Bengal Islands of the Andaman Sea 01 Volcanic arc islands Maritime Southeast Asia Southeast Asian countries States and territories established in 1956 1956 establishments in India Bengali-speaking countries and territories States and union territories of India