Baratang Island is an island of the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

. It belongs to the North and Middle Andaman administrative

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

, part of the Indian

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...

. The island lies north of Port Blair.

History

Ranchiwalas Island is another name for Baratang Island. Towards the close of the nineteenth century, the city of Ranchi experienced political upheaval. Many locals sought refuge by converting to Christianity with the help of the missionaries there. The British, realizing the future prospects of the forests of Andaman and Nicobar islands, sent the converts to Baratang Island to cultivate crops. The laborers from Ranchi settled there and made new lives for themselves. A lighthouse was commissioned in 1985 at the eastern entrance to the Andaman strait.

Geography

The island belongs to the

Great Andaman Great Andaman is the main archipelago of the Andaman Islands of India. It comprises seven major islands. From north to south, these are North Andaman, Interview Island, Middle Andaman, Long Island, Baratang Island, South Andaman, and Rut ...

Chain, and with an area of it is one of the main

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

s of the group, a closely set

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

, adjoining the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and the west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated f ...

Middle Andaman Middle Andaman Island is an island of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the North and Middle Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Geography The island belongs to the Great Andama ...

is to its north, and

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 an ...

to the south. Beaches, mangrove creeks,

limestone caves Limestone is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Limestone forms when t ...

, and

mud volcano A mud volcano or mud dome is a landform created by the eruption of mud or Slurry, slurries, water and gases. Several geological processes may cause the formation of mud volcanoes. Mud volcanoes are not true Igneous rock, igneous volcanoes as th ...

es are some of the physical features. The islands of

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 Andam ...

lie to the east.

Port Blair Port Blair (), officially named Sri Vijaya Puram, 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 headqu ...

, the capital of the Indian

Union Territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

, is located approximately from the southern tip of Baratang. Baratang contains the only known examples of

es in India. These mud volcanoes have erupted sporadically, with recent eruptions in 2005 believed to have been associated with the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+07:00, UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicenter, epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The Submarine earthquake, undersea ...

. The previous major eruption recorded was on 18 February 2003. The locals call this mud volcano ''jalki''. There are other volcanoes in the area, the Barren Island volcano which is the only

active volcano An active volcano is a volcano that is currently erupting, or has the potential to erupt in the future. Conventionally it is applied to any that have erupted during the Holocene (the current geologic epoch that began approximately 11,700 years ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

, and the

Narcondum Narcondam, India's easternmost island, is a small volcanic island located in the northern Andaman Sea. The island's peak rises to 710 m above mean sea level, and it is formed of andesite. It is part of the Andaman Islands, the main body of whi ...

volcano which has been classified as a dormant volcano by the

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

Administration

Administratively, Baratang Island is part of Rangat

Taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ...

. Forest area of island is managed by DFO, Baratang.

Transportation

The island is dissected by the Andaman Trunk Road to Rangat and Mayabunder. There are two ferry crosses: "Bamboo Trikery" Jetty and "Nilambur" Jetty. The

Veer Savarkar International Airport Veer Savarkar International Airport is an international airport located south of Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair) and the primary airport serving the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Earlier known as Port Blair Airport, it was renamed in 2 ...

in the city of

is the nearest airport located approximately away from the isle.

Demographics

There are a twelve villages on Baratang, most noted are Adazig, Sunderghar, Nayaghar and Nilambur(HQ). According to the 2011 census of India, the Island has 5691 inhabitants. The effective literacy rate (i.e. the literacy rate of population excluding children aged 6 and below) is 100%. This island is inhabited mainly by the migrated Chota Nagpuri tribes.

Tourism

Major attractions on the island include the limestone caves, the Mud Volcano, Parrot Island, and Baludera Beach.

Places to Stay include the APWD inspection bungalow, Guest House of Forest Department as well as some hotels viz., Dew Dale Resorts and Coral Creek Resort.

Image gallery

File:Baratang I locale.png, Location of Baratang File:Ferry with public, and vehicles crossing from Baratang to Middle Strait point, Andaman Islands, India.jpg, Ferry at Middle Strait jetty, Baratang File:Baratang Island Middle Strait entry point, Andaman Islands, India.JPG, Baratang Island Middle Strait jetty File:Baratang Island near Middle Strait entry point, Andaman Islands, India.JPG, Baratang Island Middle Strait jetty File:Mud Volcano Baratang Island, Andaman Island, India,.JPG, Mud Volcano of Baratang Island File:Baratang mud volcano.jpg, Mud Volcano of Baratang Island

References

External links

Geological Survey of India
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baratang Island Islands of North and Middle Andaman district Tourist attractions in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Volcanoes of India Volcanoes of the Indian Ocean Mud volcanoes