Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Early history

Genetic and cultural studies suggest that the indigenous Andamanese people may have been isolated from other populations during the Middle Paleolithic era, which ended 30,000 years ago.^[6] Archeological evidence obtained from middens have been dated the earliest civilisations back to 200-300 BCE.^[7] The islands have been mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE.^[4][5]

Middle ages

The Nicobar islands existed on a major trade route connecting India to the South East Asia and had much contact with the outside world for centuries. But there are very few accounts of information as there was no written language with the indigenous people to document their history.^[8] The islands have been mentioned in the accounts of travellers like Faxian in the 6th century CE and I-T'sing in 7th century CE.^[5]

In the 11th century CE, Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty of Tamilakam invaded parts of South East Asia using the Nicobar islands as an intermediate naval base.^[9][10] It was part of an established Chola trade route connecting India and South East Asia, with the practice continuing in the subsequent years during the reigns of Rajendra II and Kulothunga I.^[11][12] Chola inscriptions from Thanjavur, dated to 1050 CE, describe the islands as Ma-Nakkavaram meaning "great open/naked land" in Tamil.^[13][14] The islands are later mentioned by Marco Polo in the 13th century CE and Friar Oderic in early 14th century CE.^[5][15]

European colonisation

The European colonisation on the islands began when settlers from the Danish East India Company arrived on the Nicobar Islands on 12 December 1755.^[16] On 1 January 1756, the Nicobar Islands were made into a Danish colony, first named Nye Danmark (New Denmark) and later Frederiksøerne (Frederick's Islands).^[17] The islands were managed from the Danish colony of Tranquebar in the Indian mainland. However, various attempts to settle on the islands were unsuccessful due to repeated outbreaks of malaria, which led to the death of the colonists.^[8]

Between 1778 and 1783, William Bolts tried to establish an Austrian colony on the Nicobar islands, mistakenly assuming that the Danish had abandoned the claims to the islands, renaming them Theresa Islands.^[18] In 1789, the British colonised the Andaman islands to set up a naval base and establish a penal colony.^[19] In 1794, a first batch of 100 prisoners were sent to the island but the settlement was abandoned in 1796.^[19]

In 1858, the British established a colony near Port Blair.^[20] Between 1864 and 1868, Italy tried to buy the island from the Danish. On 16 October 1868, the Danish sold the rights to the Nicobar islands to the British, which was made part of the British India in 1869.^[8] In 1872, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were united under a single command and administered by a chief commissioner based out of Port Blair. The construction of the Cellular Jail started in 1896 and was completed in 1906. The jail was used to house political prisoners and independence activists away from the Indian mainland.^[21][22]

World War II

During the Second World War, the islands were invaded by the Japanese as a part of their attack on the allies in 1942. Port Blair was captured by the Japanese on 23 March 1942 and established control over the island.^[23] The provisional control was passed on to the Azad Hind of Subhash Chandra Bose on 29 December 1943, based on the understanding with the Japanese with the islands renamed as Shaheed-Dweep (Martyr Island) and Swaraj-dweep (Self-rule Island).^[24] Bose appointed General A. D. Loganathan as the governor of the islands, who had limited power while the real control of the islands remained with the Japanese.^[24] In the years under Japanese occupation, there have been reports of widespread looting, arson, rape and extra judicial killings.^[24][25]

Local people were often killed on trivial matters with the largest being the Homfreyganj massacre on 30 January 1944, where 44 local civilians were shot by the Japanese on suspicion of spying.^[25] Japanese Vice Admiral Teizo Hara and Major-General Tamenori Sato surrendered to Lieutenant Colonel Nathu Singh, the commanding officer of the Rajput Regiment on 15 August 1945, on board the Royal Navy warship HMS Sandbar and the territory was officially handed back over to the British to Brigadier J. A. Salomons, commander of 116th Indian Infantry Brigade, and Chief Administrator Noel Patterson, in a ceremony performed at the Gymkhana Ground in Port Blair on 7 October 1945.^[26]

Post independence

During the Partition of India, the British announced their intention to retain possession of the islands and use them to resettle Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmese on these islands. The islands were claimed by the Indian National Congress for India and the Muslim League for Pakistan during the partition negotiations.^[27][28] After the Indian Independence in 1947, the islands became part of the Dominion of India. As per the Constitution of India, the Islands were designated as the only part D territory in 1950, to be administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the Government of India.^[29] The islands were later used to resettle people displaced during the partition with a substantial number of displaced immigrants establishing agricultural colonies.^[30] The islands became a separate union territory administered by the Government of India, following the re-organization in 1956.^[31] The islands have been developed into a key defence establishment since the 1980 due to its strategic location in the Bay of Bengal across the Strait of Malacca.^[32][33]

On 26 December 2004, the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar islands experienced 10 m (33 ft) high tsunami waves following an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean which resulted in more than 2,000 casualties, 46,000 injuries and rendering at least 40,000 homeless.^[34] The locals and tourists on the islands suffered the greatest casualties while the indigenous people largely survived unscathed due to movement to high grounds following the oral traditions passed down over generations that warned them to evacuate following earthquakes.^[35]

Flora and fauna

The islands have mangroves interspersed with marshes, coconut trees or dispersed bushy vegetation along the coast.^[46] There are twelve types of forests that occur in the islands including evergreen, deciduous, mangrove, littoral, bamboo, sub-montane and brackish water forests.^[48] North Andaman is characterised by wet evergreen forests with climbing plants, Middle Andaman has moist deciduous forests and South Andaman islands have epiphytic vegetation, mostly ferns and orchids.^[48] The North Nicobar islands are mostly barren with grasslands while evergreen forests form the dominant vegetation in the central and southern islands of the Nicobar group.^[48] The forest coverage is estimated to be 86.2% of the total land area with about 2,200 varieties of plants of which 200 are endemic and 1,300 do not occur in mainland India.^[48] There are more than 200 species used for timber.^[48]

There are more than 8300 species of fauna of which 1117 are endemic to the islands.^[49][50] There are about 64 species of reptiles of which half of them are endemic to the islands.^[49] Most of the larger species were introduced by colonists and travellers, some of which became endemic due to their prolonged isolation. There are about 55 mammal species of which 32 are endemic with 26 species of rats and 14 species of bats, the most among the mammals.^[48][45] The endangered Indian elephant can be found in forested or mountainous areas of the islands, which were originally introduced from the mainland to help with the timber extraction in 1883.^[51] Endangered and critically endangered species endemic to the islands include the Andaman white-toothed shrew, Andaman spiny shrew, Jenkin's shrew, Nicobar spiny shrew, Nicobar tree shrew, Miller's Nicobar rat, Palm rat, Andaman teal, Nicobar scops owl, Andaman boobook and Darwin's eastern frog.^[49] Other large fauna include Wild boar, Spotted deer, Barking deer and Sambar deer.^[48]

There are about 270 species of birds in the islands of which 90 are endemic.^[49] The islands' caves are nesting grounds for the Edible-nest swiftlet, whose nests are prized for bird's nest soup.^[52] The islands serve as an intermediate resting site for birds such as Horsfield's bronze cuckoo, Zappey's flycatcher and Javan pond heron during long distance migrations.^[53] The Nicobar pigeon found in the islands is the closest living relative to the extinct Dodo.^[54] The territory is home for about 896 species of winged insects including 225 butterflies species.^[49][48]

There are more than 1350 species of echinoderms and molluscs and 200 species of corals in the seas surrounding the islands.^[45] Larger marine species include salt water crocodiles, dugongs, turtles, dolphins and whales.^[45] There are more than 1350 species of fishes including 13 fresh water species.^[49] The islands are well known for prized shellfish, the commercial exploitation of which began in the early 20th century.^[48] There are about nine national parks, 96 wildlife sanctuaries and one biosphere reserve in the islands.^[55][45]

Official symbols of Andaman and Nicobar^[56]

Animal	Dugong (Dugong dugon)
Bird	Andaman wood pigeon (Columba palumboides)
Tree	Andaman padauk (Pterocarpus dalbergioides)
Flower	Pyinma (Lagerstroemia hypoleuca)

Languages

The Andamanese people speak about a dozen endangered Andamanese languages, which belong to two families, Great Andamanese and Ongan that are unrelated to each other or to any other language group.^[66] There are two unattested languages: Sentinelese, spoken by Sentinelese people, who refuse contact with outsiders, which might be related to Ongan as per Anvita Abbi and Jangil, which became extinct in the 1920s.^[67][68] Indigenous to the Nicobar Islands are the Shompen language, spoken by Shompen people and the five Nicobarese languages, which form part of the Austroasiatic language family and are spoken by about 29,000 people or 7.6% of the population.^[69][65]

The majority of the population, however, are speakers of immigrant languages which include Bengali (28.5%), Tamil (15.2%), Telugu (13.2%), Hindi (12.9%), Malayalam (7.2%). Sadri (5.5%), and Kurukh (4%).^[65] Hindi is the official language of the region, while English is declared an additional official language for communication purposes.^[70]

Tourism

Tourism is one of the major contributors to the economy of the islands. The islands had more than 400,000 visitors in 2016 with a 94% contribution from domestic tourists.^[80] In 2018, plans to develop facilities in various islands under the National Institute of Transforming India (NITI) Aayog was initiated by Government of India, with the aim of increasing tourist inflows.^[84][80] Foreign tourists are issued Restricted Area Permits (RAP) which gives access to specific areas with conditions.^[85] While domestic tourists do not require a permit to visit the accessible parts of the islands, the tribal reserves are forbidden and requires special permission for access.^[86] The islands have many beaches due to its long coastline and various water sports are practised including kayaking, scuba diving and parasailing.^[87]

Major attractions include the Cellular Jail, Chatham Saw Mill, Forest Museum, Samudrika Naval Marine Museum, Anthropological Museum, Fisheries Aquarium, Science Center and Carbyn's cove in Port Blair; Bharatpur, Lakshmanpur and Sitapur beaches in Shaheed Dweep; Elephant and Radhanagar beaches in Swaraj Dweep; Hudi tikri, Red, Bird and Bat islands, Amkunj beach near Rangat; Dhaninallah mangroves and Karmatang beach near Mayabunder; limestone caves and mud volcanoes near Diglipur; Craggy island and Ross & Smith islands and various national parks and protected sanctuaries.^[88]

Power

There is no single power grid connecting all the islands and independent power houses caters to the power requirements of individual islands.^[99] The islands have an installed power capacity of 68.46 MW with majority of the power generated from diesel power plants and a single hydroelectric powerplant of 5.25 MW on Kalpong river.^[100] In 2016, a new 15 MW diesel power plant was established in South Andaman with Japanese assistance.^[101][102] Commissioned in June 2020, a 10 MW photovoltaic power station is operated by NLC India in Port Blair.^[103][104] In 2022, the government proposed additional power plants and infrastructure to be developed in Great Nicobar.^[105]

Telecommunication

4G mobile service is provided by various telecom operators in the islands.^[106] Till 2020, Internet was provided through satellite links and access was limited. Bharat Broadband Network started work on laying fiber optic submarine cables connecting the islands with Chennai in December 2018.^[107][108] On 10 August 2020, the undersea optical fibre cable went live, which enabled high-speed broadband connections in the islands.^{[109][110][111]}