Chetlat Island is a

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

island belonging to the Amindivi Subgroup of islands of the

Lakshadweep Lakshadweep () is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands divided into three island subgroups: the Amindivi Islands in the north, the Laccadive Islands (separated from Amindivi roughly by the 11th parallel north), and th ...

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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It has a distance of west of the city of

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

History

Local history says that islanders were cruelly treated by Portuguese seafarers in the past.

Coir Coir (), also called coconut fibre, is a natural fibre extracted from the outer husk of coconut, and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes, and mattresses. Coir is the fibrous material found between the hard, internal shell ...

twisting was the traditional occupation of the inhabitants and average Chetlat coir used to be equal to first-class coir of the other islands in Lakshadweep.

Geography

Chetlat is one of the populated islands of Lakshadweep. It is located 37 km to the northwest of Kiltan Island. The reef and lagoon are located to the west of the island and the total dry land area is . There is a small scale yearly growing sand spit on the northern point of the island. It has a

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

area of .

Administration

Chetlat is the sole inhabited island of the

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of Chetlat Island of

Aminidivi The Aminidivi Islands () are one of the three island subgroups in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, India. It is the northern group of the Lakshadweep, separated from the Laccadive Islands subgroup roughly by the 11th parallel north. The ...

Tehsil 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 Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

Economics

The inhabitants on the island are engaged in very small scale farming and fishing which are mainly for the island consumption.

Transportation

The island has a small jetty on the west coast and a helipad on southpoint.

Image gallery

File:Lakshadweep.jpg, Satellite picture showing the atolls of the Lakshadweep except for

Minicoy Minicoy, locally known as Maliku (), is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Along with Viringili, it is on Maliku atoll, the southernmost atoll of Lakshadweep archipelago. Administratively, it is a census town in the Indian States and territories ...

File:Map of Lakshadweep-en.svg, Map

References

External links

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Lagoon sizes
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List of Atolls

An ornithological expedition to the Lakshadweep archipelagoSources towards a history of the Laccadive Islands
Islands of Lakshadweep Atolls of India Cities and towns in Lakshadweep district Islands of India Populated places in India {{Lakshadweep-geo-stub