Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands 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 ...

, 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-Islands In the 15th century, Great Nicobar Island was recorded as "Cui Lan island" (翠蘭嶼) during the voyages of Zheng He in the Mao Kun map of the Wu Bei Zhi. Great Nicobar Island was severely affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

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 ...

with many deaths, and was cut off from all outside contact for more than a day.

Geography

The island of Sumatra is located to the south of Great Nicobar. The island covers but is sparsely inhabited, with a population of 8067, largely being covered by rainforest and known for its diverse

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...

Topography

The island has several rivers, including the Alexandra, Amrit Kaur, Dogmar and Galathea. Virtually all rivers flow in a southern or southwesterly direction, which is indicative of the general slope of the terrain across the island. There are undulating hills throughout the island, with the main range running in a north-south orientation.

Mount Thullier Mount Thuillier is a mountain on Great Nicobar Island, located in the Indian Ocean and bordering on the Andaman Sea. At above sea level, it is the highest point on the island and in the Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagi ...

, which is part of this range, has the highest elevation of any point in the Nicobars, at 642 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

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 ...

(6°45’10″N and 93°49’36″E) is the southernmost point of the Great Nicobar Island and India itself. Indira Point subsided 4.25 m in the 26 December 2004 tsunami and the lighthouse there was damaged. The lighthouse was subsequently made functional.

Ecology

The island is part of the Nicobar Islands rain forests ecoregion. Plant communities include mangroves and coastal forests near the seashore, and evergreen and deciduous forests in the interior. The majority of the island is designated as the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve— home to many unique and

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

species of plants and animals including the Nicobar scrubfowl (''Megapodius nicobariensis'', a

megapode The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy legs ...

bird), the edible-nest swiftlet (''Aerodramus fuciphagus''), the Nicobar long-tailed macaque (''Macaca fascicularis umbrosa''),

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 ...

(''Crocodylus porosus''), giant leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''),

Malayan box turtle The Amboina box turtle or Southeast Asian box turtle (''Cuora amboinensis'') is a species of Asian box turtle. It is found in the Nicobar Islands, eastern India (Assam), Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, central and southern Vietn ...

, Nicobar tree shrew,

reticulated python The reticulated python (''Malayopython reticulatus'') is a python species native to South and Southeast Asia. It is the world's longest snake, and is among the three heaviest. It is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List because of its w ...

(''Python reticulatus'') and the giant robber crab (or coconut crab, ''Birgus latro'').

Demography

The island is home to the

Shompen people 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 Tribe. Etymology and autonym "Shompen" is po ...

Transportation

There is a 915m airstrip at Campbell Bay/Tenlaa on the East coast. * Seaport: At least one small shipping dock is located in Campbell Bay.

Naval air station

The INS Baaz naval air station, near Campbell Bay, is under the joint-services Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) 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 ...

. It is the southernmost air station of the Indian Armed Forces.

Great Nicobar Development Plan

The Great Nicobar Development Plan is a massive infrastructure plan (including a major transshipment port, airport, and future strategic defense) for the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island, India. The plan has generated conflict concerning consequences of deforestation and giant leatherback sea turtle nesting sites. The plan was proposed on January 18, 2021 by an Indian policy think tank (NITI Aayog) informed by a feasibility report written by AECOM India Private Limited. Environmental Justice groups have pushed back claiming that the development plan would make it unlikely that the leatherback sea turtles would continue to nest in the Galathea Bay - as well as negatively impact the nomadic livelihoods of the indigenous Shompen people. The NITI Aayog plan also envisages 650,000 people to inhabit the island by 2050. Its current population is only around 8,500. In fact, the total population of the archipelago, composed of over 500 islands but of which around 40 are inhabited, is around 380,000. The increase in population is expected to impose a significant ecological pressure on the island and its surroundings.

Indira Point

is the name of the southernmost point of Republic of

. It is situated on Great Nicobar Island in the Nicobar Islands, which are located in the eastern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

at 6°45’10″N and 93°49’36″E. This is not on the Indian mainland, but within the Union Territory of

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

. The name of the point was changed from Pygmalion Point on 18 October 1985 in commemoration of Indira Gandhi. It was formerly known by various names that include Pygmalion Point, Parsons Point, and for a brief period India Point. It is located 540 km and more than a day's sea voyage from Port Blair, the capital city and main port of the

. It is approximately 163 km by sea from Sumatra, Indonesia. Rondo Island, Indonesia's northernmost island in Sabang district of Aceh province of Sumatra, lies south of Indira point. India and Indonesia are planning to collaborate to construct a port at Sabang to protect the channel between Great Nicobar Island and Rondo Island (c. May 2019).India seeks to aid Indonesia in developing port in Aceh
Economic Times, 19 May 2018.

Indira Point lighthouse

Indira Point has a 35 m high cast iron (with red and white bands) lighthouse with 16 nautical miles range. The lighthouse has (RACON (Code 'G') ii DGPS station) with a 300 mm 4 panel revolving light inside a 2.5 m diameter lantern house (BBT). It is an important landmark on the international shipping lane Colombo-Singapore route via Malacca Strait that passes south of Indira Point. It also has a helipad.

2004 tsunami

The

which resulted from the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 inundated much of the area. This partly damaged the lighthouse, which subsided 4.25 m. As a result of this subsidence, the coast retreated and the sea moved permanently inland. The lighthouse has since been repaired. The base of the lighthouse was 5 m above sea level when constructed in 1972. After the tsunami, the sea rose and the base was less than a metre above the sea level, showing over 4 meters of sea floor subsidence. It has been observed that the sea is slowly retreating back to its original position and the subsidence has decreased as the ocean floor slowly bounces back partially, a similar drop and rise due to crustal decompression and recompression was observed in the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six mi ...

on Honshu. Indira point was mostly submerged.

Image gallery

File:Map of Nicobar Islands-en.png, Map File:GreatNicobarMap.jpg, Map of Great Nicobar Island File:Andaman and Nicobar Islands - Great Nicobar.PNG, Locator

References

"Nicobar completely devastated" – from rediff.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Nicobar Island Islands of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Nicobar district Tehsils of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands