Port Blair (), officially named Sri Vijaya Puram, is the capital city of the

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 ...

, a

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 ...

of India 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 ...

. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''

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 ...

'') of the islands, the headquarters for the

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 ...

of South Andaman, and the territory's only notified town. Port Blair is the entry point for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is connected with mainland India by both air and sea. It is a two to three-hour flight from mainland India to Port Blair's Veer Savarkar International Airport and three to four days by sea to reach

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, or

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

from Haddo Wharf in the city. It is home to several museums and the major naval base

INS Jarawa INS Jarawa is a naval base of the Indian Armed Forces under the joint-services Andaman and Nicobar Command located in Sri Vijaya Puram in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. It was commissioned in 1964. INS Utkrosh is an adjacent naval air sta ...

of the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

, along with sea and air bases of the

Indian Coast Guard The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is a maritime law enforcement and search and rescue agency of India with jurisdiction over its territorial waters including its contiguous zone and Exclusive economic zone of India, exclusive economic zone. It was st ...

, Andaman and Nicobar Police, Andaman and Nicobar Command, the first integrated tri-command between the

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

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

and the navy. The historic Cellular Jail is in the city, and nearby small islands such as Corbyn's Cove, Wandoor,

Ross Island Ross Island is an island in Antarctica lying on the east side of McMurdo Sound and extending from Cape Bird in the north to Cape Armitage in the south, and a similar distance from Cape Royds in the west to Cape Crozier in the east. The isl ...

and Viper Island were once home to British colonists. The city was named after Captain Archibald Blair, a British surveyor and officer in the Bombay Marine (now the

). On 13 September 2024, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

officially renamed the city to Sri Vijaya Puram.

History

Pre-history

The indigenous inhabitants are the

Andamanese The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in Indi ...

Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

studies of the kitchen refuse dumps from the mounds excavated by the

Anthropological Survey of India The Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) is an Indian government organisation involved in anthropological studies and field data research, primarily engaged in physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, while maintaining a strong focu ...

at Choladari near Port Blair indicate human occupation for at least 2,000 years,US Man's Body Should Be Left Alone, As Should The Andaman Tribe: Experts

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

, 27 November 2018. although they are likely to have diverged from the inhabitants of the mainland significantly earlier.

Modern history

In 1789 the Government of

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

established a penal colony on

Chatham Island Chatham Island ( ) ( Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) is the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway between the equator and the pole, a ...

in the southeast bay of Great Andaman, named Port Blair in the honour of Archibald Blair of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. After two years, the colony moved to the northeast part of Great Andaman and was named Port Cornwallis after Admiral William Cornwallis. However, there was much disease and death in the penal colony, and the government ceased operating it in May 1796. In 1824 Port Cornwallis was the rendezvous of the fleet carrying the army to the First Anglo-Burmese War. In the 1830s and 1840s, shipwrecked crews who landed on the Andamans were often attacked and killed by the natives, alarming the

British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

. In 1855, the government proposed another settlement on the islands, including a convict establishment, but the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

forced a delay in its construction. However, since the rebellion provided the British with a lot of new prisoners, it made the new Andaman settlement and prison an urgent necessity. Construction began in November 1857 at the renovated Port Blair, avoiding the vicinity of a saltwater swamp that seemed to have been the source of many of the old colony's problems. The penal colony was originally on Viper Island. The convicts, mostly

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 ...

s, suffered

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

at hard labour under cruel and degrading conditions. Many were hanged, while others died of disease and starvation. Between 1864 and 1867 a penal establishment was also built with convict labour on the northern side of Ross Island. These structures now lie in ruins. As the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

continued to grow in the late 19th century, the enormous Cellular Jail was constructed between 1896 and 1906 to house Indian convicts, mostly political prisoners, in

solitary confinement Solitary confinement (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to ...

. The Cellular Jail is also known as ''Kala Pani'' (translated as "Black Waters"), a name given to it due to the torture and general ill-treatment of its Indian convicts. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the islands were occupied by the Japanese on 23 March 1942 without opposition from the garrison. From 1943 to 1944, Port Blair served as the headquarters of the Azad Hind government under

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian independence movement, Indian nationalist whose defiance of British raj, British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with ...

. British forces returned to the islands in October 1945. Although affected by the

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

, Port Blair survived sufficiently to act as a base for relief efforts in the islands. In 2017 it was selected as one of the cities to be developed as a

smart city A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities ...

under the

Smart Cities Mission Smart Cities Mission was an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government of India with the mission to develop smart cities across the country, making them citizen-friendly and sustainable. The Union Ministry of Urban Development ...

Climate

Port Blair has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate subtype that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ' ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Am''), with little variation in average temperature and large amounts of precipitation throughout the year. All months except January, February, and March receive substantial rainfall. Highest recorded temperature: on 20 April 2013 Lowest recorded temperature: on 5 June 1986

Tourism

Port Blair is the entry point for all tourism-related activities. Tourists first have to arrive at Port Blair before progressing on to any other islands in Andaman. At Port Blair, the major tourist places to visit are the Cellular Jail, Corbyns Cove Beach, North Bay Island,

renamed to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island, Chidiatapu, Wandoor, Samudrika Naval Marine Museum, and other museums that are present within city limits. Entry charges apply to some of the tourist places.

Demographics

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 ...

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Port Blair had a population of 100,608. Males constitute 52.92% (53,247) of the population and females 47.07% (47,361). 9.3% of the population is under the age of 6 years.

Language

Port Blair is a multilingual city. Largest language's population are

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

40,323 Telugu 32,628

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

31,520 Bengali 28,063

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 ...

13,670 Sadri 3,479 Kurukh 3,459 Necobarese 2,308.

Religion

The most common religion is Hinduism, followed by Christianity and Islam.

Literacy

Port Blair has an average literacy rate of 89.76%, higher than the national average that is 74.04%. In Port Blair, male literacy is 92.79%, and female literacy is 86.34%.

Administration

The Port Blair Municipal Council, officially known as Sri Vijaya Puram Municipal Council abbreviated as PBMC, officially SVPMC is the ruling civic body administering the city of Port Blair, the capital and the largest city in the Indian union territory of

. The council came into existence on 2 October 1957 after the assent by the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Municipal Board's) Regulation, 1957 Act on 11 March 1957. The council comprises a total of 24 wards after the recent delimitation and the expansion of the city limits with the merger of a few other villages to the existing 18 wards previously. The recent elections for the council were held in 2022. U. Kavitha from Ward 24 a member of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

was elected as the chairperson for the first term which commenced on 16 March 2022. On 14 March 2023,

Telugu Desam Party The Telugu Desam Party (TDP; ) is an Indian regional political party primarily active in the Federated state, states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was founded by Telugu cinema, Telugu matinée idol N. T. Rama Rao (NTR) on 29 March 1982 a ...

councillor S. Selvi from Ward 5 was elected as the chairperson for the second year term commencing from 16 March 2023 as part of the joint candidature from the BJP-TDP Alliance.

PBMC electoral history

Current PBMC members

Port Blair Municipal Council (PBMC) has a total of 24 members or councillors, who are directly elected after a term of 5 years. The council is led by the Chairperson. The latest elections were held in 2022. The current chairperson of Port Blair is S. Shahul Hameed of the

. The current senior vice chairperson is D. Radhika of the

and the junior vice chairperson is Rajesh Ram of the

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 aff ...

Engineering

* Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Institute of Technology

Law

* Andaman Law College

Medicine

* Andaman and Nicobar Islands Institute of Medical Sciences

Gallery

File:Port Blair, Andamans, Statue of Rajiv Gandhi.jpg, Statue of Rajiv Gandhi File:Port Blair, Andamans, Sea bridge.jpg, Sunset in the bay File:Gandhi statue-3-gandhi park-port blair-andaman-India.jpg,

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...

statue, Gandhi park File:PortBlair SeasideRoad.JPG, Seaside Road File:Cellular Jail, Andaman, Port Blair, India.jpg, Cellular Jail File:Science Centre Port Blair 4150297.JPG, Port Blair Science Centre File:Jaljeevshala-Aquarium at Port Blair - panoramio.jpg, Jaljeevshala Aquarium File:Aberdeen clock tower-1-port blair-andaman-India.jpg, Aberdeen clock tower File:Battle of Aberdeen Memorial In Port Blair.jpg, Memorial for the 1859 Battle of Aberdeen File:Shree Munisuvrat Swami Jain Temple, Port Blair.jpg, Port Blair Jain temple

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1789 establishments in India 1789 establishments in British India Populated places established in 1789 Cities and towns in South Andaman district Indian union territory capitals Tourist attractions in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands South Andaman Island Port cities in India