The Andaman Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. The Bay of Bengal is a bay that forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands is a Union territory of India. Informally the territory's name is often abbreviated to A & N Islands, or ANI A Union Territory is a sub-national administrative division of India. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Port Blair is the chief community on the islands, and the administrative centre of the Union Territory. Port Blair ( Hindi: पोर्ट ब्लेयर is the largest town and a Municipal council in Andaman district in the Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands form a single administrative district within the Union Territory, the Andaman district (the Nicobar district was separated and established as a new district in 1974). Andaman district is a district of India, one of two districts in the Indian Union Territory (UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Nicobar district is one of three districts in the Indian Union Territory (UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The population of the Andamans was 314,084 in 2001.
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Climate
The climate is typical of tropical islands of similar latitude. It is always warm, but with sea-breezes. Rainfall is irregular, but usually dry during the north-east, and very wet during the south-west, monsoons.
People
The Andamanese is a collective term to describe the peoples who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese is a collective term to describe the peoples who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal The term Indigenous Peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any Ethnic group who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest historical The Nicobar Islands are an island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean, and are part of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India The Bay of Bengal is a bay that forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. The term includes the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Shompens, Sentinelese and the extinct Jangil. Great Andamanese is a collective term used to refer to related groups or Tribes of Indigenous peoples who lived throughout most of the Great Andaman The Jarawa (also Järawa, Jarwa) are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands. The Onge (also Önge) are one of the Andamanese Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. The Sentinelese (also Sentineli, Senteneli, Sentenelese, North Sentinel Islanders) are one of the Andamanese Indigenous The Jangil (also Rutland Jarawa) were one of the Andamanese Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal Anthropologically they are usually classified as Negritos, represented also by the Semang of Malaysia and the Aeta of the Philippines. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of The term Negrito refers to several ethnic groups in isolated parts of Southeast Asia. The Semang are a Negrito ethnic group of the Malay Peninsula. For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and The Aeta (pronounced as “eye-ta” Agta or Ayta are an Indigenous people who live in scattered isolated mountainous parts of Luzon, The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP
For information on the indigenous languages, see Andamanese languages. The Andamanese languages form a proposed Language family spoken by the Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, a Union territory
History
It is uncertain whether any of the names of the islands given by Ptolemy ought to be attached to the Andamans; yet it is probable that the name itself is traceable to the Alexandrian geographer. Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca Andaman first appears distinctly in the Arab notices of the 9th century, already quoted. But it seems possible that the tradition of marine nomenclature had never perished; that the Agathou daimonos nesos was really a misunderstanding of some form like Agdaman, while Nesoi Baroussai survived as Lanka Balus, the name applied by the Arabs to the Nicobar Islands. The Nicobar Islands are an island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean, and are part of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India The islands are briefly noticed by Marco Polo, who may have seen them without visiting, under the name Angamanain, seemingly an Arabic dual, "the two Angamans", with the exaggerated picture of the natives as dog-faced cannibals. Marco Polo ( September 15 1254 – January 9 1324 at earliest but no later than June 1325 was a Venetian trader and explorer Cannibalism (from Spanish es ''caníbal'' in connection with cannibalism among the Antillean Caribs, also called anthropophagy (from Greek ἄνθρωπος
Another notice occurs in the story of Niccolò Da Conti (c. Niccolò Da Conti (also Nicolò de' Conti) (1395&ndash1469 was a Venetian merchant and explorer born in Chioggia, who traveled to India and 1440), who explains the name to mean Island of Gold, and speaks of a lake with peculiar virtues as existing in it. The name is probably derived from the Malay Handuman, coming from the ancient Hanuman (monkey god). The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the Hanuman (हनुमत् sa-Latn '''Hanumat''' nominative singular sa हनुमान् sa-Latn ''Hanumān'' known also as ' Anjaneya' (son of Anjana is one of the Later travellers repeat the stories, too well founded, of the "ferocious hostility" of the people; of whom we may instance Cesare Federici (1569), whose narrative is given in Ramusio, vol. The noble Italian family of Ramusio (also spelled Ramusiothe, Ramnusio, Rhamnusio, Rannusio) was worth of note for literary and official iii. (only in the later editions), and in Purchas. A good deal is also told of them in the vulgar and gossiping but useful work of Captain A. Hamilton (1727).
In 1788-1789 the government of Bengal sought to establish in the Andamans a penal colony, associated with a harbour of refuge. Etymology and ethnology The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang A penal colony is a Settlement used to detain Prisoners and generally use them for Penal labour in an economically underdeveloped part of the state's Two officers, Colebrooke of the Bengal Engineers, and Blair of the sea service, were sent to survey and report. Subsequently the settlement was established by Captain Blair in September 1789 on Chatham Island in the southeast bay of Great Andaman, now called Port Blair, but then Port Cornwallis. Port Blair ( Hindi: पोर्ट ब्लेयर is the largest town and a Municipal council in Andaman district in the Andaman Islands There was much sickness, and after two years, urged by Admiral William Cornwallis, the government transferred the colony to the northeast part of Great Andaman where a naval arsenal was to be established. Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, GCB ( 10 February 1744 - 5 July 1819) was a Royal Navy officer who fought in the Napoleonic Great Andaman is the main Archipelago of the Andaman Islands of India. With the colony the name also of Port Cornwallis was transferred to the new locality. The scheme did not prosper and, in 1796, the government put an end to it, owing to the high mortality rate and the cost of maintenance. The settlers were finally removed in May 1796.
In 1824 Port Cornwallis was the rendezvous of the fleet carrying the army to the First Burmese War. The First Anglo–Burmese War lasted from 1823 to 1826 In the United Kingdom it is called the First Burmese War whereas Burmese custom names both belligerents In 1839, Dr Helfer, a German savant employed by the Indian government, having landed in the islands, was attacked and killed. In 1844 the troop-ships Briton and Runnymede were driven ashore close together. The natives showed hostility, killing all stragglers. Further attacks on shipwrecked crews were so common that the question of occupation had to be reviewed, and in 1855 a settlement was proposed, including a convict establishment. The Cellular Jail (also known as Kālā Pānī, literally 'Black water' a term for the deep sea and hence exile situated in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands This was interrupted by the Indian Rebellion of 1857 but, as soon as the back of that revolt was broken, it became more urgent to provide such a resource, on account of the great number of prisoners falling into British hands. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of Sepoys of British East India Company 's army on the 10th of May 1857 in the town of Meerut, Lord Canning, therefore, in November 1857, sent a commission, headed by Dr F. Charles John Canning 1st Earl Canning KG, GCB, GCSI, PC ( 14 December 1812 &ndash 17 June 1862) known Mouat, to examine and report. The commission reported favourably, selecting as a site Blair's original Port Cornwallis, but avoiding the vicinity of a salt swamp which seemed to have been the source of many of the old colony's problems. To avoid confusion, the name of Port Blair was given to the new settlement.
For some time sickness and mortality were excessively high, but swamp reclamation and extensive forest clearance by Colonel Henry Man when in charge (1868-1870), apparently had a beneficial effect, and the settlement has since been healthy. Land reclamation is either of two distinct practices One involves creating new land from sea- or riverbeds the other refers to restoring an area to a more natural state (such as after The Andaman colony acquired notoriety following the murder of the viceroy, the Earl of Mayo, when on a visit to the settlement on 8 February 1872, by a Muslim convict. Events 421 - Constantius III becomes co- Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Year 1872 ( MDCCCLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year In the same year the two island groups, Andaman and Nicobar, the occupation of the latter also having been forced on the British government (in 1869) by continuing attacks on vessels, were united under a chief commissioner residing at Port Blair. The Andaman Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India.
The Andaman islands were later occupied by Japan during World War II. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (8293 km² on 139 islands are a group of islands situated in the Bay of Bengal at about 780 miles from Kolkata, 740 miles from For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The islands were nominally put under the authority of the Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind (Provisional Government of Free India) headed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. This article describes the organisation formed during World War II in Singapore Netaji visited the islands during the war, and renamed them as Shaheed (Martyr) & Swaraj (Self-rule). General Loganathan of the Indian National Army, was Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which had been annexed to the Provisional Government. The Indian National Army ( INA) or Azad Hind Fauj ( Hindi: आज़ाद हिन्द फ़ौज was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists After the end of the war they briefly returned to British control, before becoming part of the newly independent state of India.
The garrison consists of 140 British and 300 Indian troops, with a few local European volunteers. The police are organised as a military battalion 643 strong. The number of convicts has somewhat diminished of late years and in 1901 stood at 11,947. The total population of the settlement, consisting of convicts, their guards, the supervising, clerical and departmental staff, with the families of the latter, also a certain number of ex-convicts and trading settlers and their families, numbered 16,106. The labouring convicts are distributed among four jails and nineteen stations; the self-supporters in thirty-eight villages. The elementary education of the convicts' children is compulsory. There are four hospitals, each under a resident medical officer, under the general supervision of a senior officer of the Indian medical service, and medical aid is given free to the whole population. The net annual cost of the settlement to the government is about six pounds per convict. The harbour of Port Blair is well supplied with buoys and harbour lights, and is crossed by ferries at fixed intervals, while there are several launches for hauling local traffic. On Ross Island there is a lighthouse visible for 19 miles. A complete system of signaling by night and day on the Morse system is worked by the police. Local posts are frequent, but there is no telegraph and the mails are irregular.
The above accounts, written while Britain still controlled India, may leave the impression that these settlements were a model of progressive penal reform. Indian accounts, however, paint a different picture. From the time of its development in 1858 under the direction of James Pattison Walker, and in response to the mutiny and rebellion of the previous year, the settlement was first and foremost a repository for political prisoners. A political prisoner is someone held in Prison or otherwise detained perhaps under House arrest, for his or her involvement in political activity The Cellular Jail at Port Blair when completed in 1910 included 698 cells designed to better accommodate solitary confinement; each cell measured 4. The Cellular Jail (also known as Kālā Pānī, literally 'Black water' a term for the deep sea and hence exile situated in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 5 m (15 ft) by 2. 7 m (9 ft) with a single ventilation window 3 metres (10 ft) above the floor. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was one of the notable prisoners there. Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar (विनायक दामोदर सावरकर (born May 28, 1883 in Bhagur – February 26,
This was the second concentration camp in the world, the first being in South Africa after the Boer War, and was founded by the British to suppress the Indian independence movement; imprisonment here was termed "Kala Pani" (Black water)[1] (See also movie by the same name which deals with some of these events Kalapani[2]). Kala Pani redirects here for the 1996 film starring Mohanlal see Kala Pani (1996 film Kalapani is a 1958 Hindi movie While the exact number of prisoners who died in this camp is not fully known, it is estimated they number in the thousands (some of the names of the political prisoners who perished can be found here [3] - this list is predominantly of those from eastern India and is incomplete). Many more died of harsh treatment, as well as through the harsh living and working conditions, in this camp[4].
The Viper Chain Gang Jail on Viper Island was reserved for troublemakers, and was also the site of hangings. In the 20th century it became a convenient place to house prominent members of India's independence movement, and it was here that on December 30, 1943 during Japanese occupation, that Subhas Chandra Bose, whilst controversially but reluctantly allied with the Japanese, first raised the flag of Indian independence. Events 1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield. 1816 - The Treaty of St Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Subhas Chandra Bose (সুভাষ চন্দ্র বসু (born January 23, 1897; presumed to have died August 18, 1945
At the close of the Second World War the British government announced its intention to abolish the penal settlement. The government proposed to employ former inmates in an initiative to develop the island's fisheries, timber, and agricultural resources. In exchange inmates would be granted return passage to the Indian mainland, or the right to settle on the islands. The penal colony was eventually closed on August 15, 1947 when India gained its independence. Events 778 - The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It has since served as a museum to the independence movement.
On 26 December 2004 the coast of the Andaman Islands was devastated by a 10-metre (33 ft) high tsunami following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Events 1481 - Battle of Westbrook - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea Earthquake that occurred at 005853 UTC on December 26 2004 with an Epicentre off the west coast of On 22 July 2006, 35 Explorer Scouts and leaders from Hertfordshire, England visited the islands to begin a project involving the building of a permanent adventure centre and refuge for 1,000 people in the event of further disasters. Events 1099 - First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The site is on the outskirts of Port Blair.
Air transport
A small airport in Port Blair (IXZ) serves flights from the Indian cities of Kolkata (Calcutta) (CCU) and Chennai (Madras) (MAA). Due to the length of these routes and the small number of airlines flying to the islands, fares have traditionally been relatively expensive, although cheaper for locals than visitors. Fares are high during peak seasons of spring and winter, but fares have been decreased over the time due to large expansion of aviation industry in India. Now going to Andaman through air is almost equal to the fares given via ship route.
This Airport has been named after Indian freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as "Veer Damodar Savarkar Airport". Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar (विनायक दामोदर सावरकर (born May 28, 1883 in Bhagur – February 26, This airport is under control of Indian Air Force, so due to security reasons night flights are not allowed on Port Blair. The Indian Air Force (Devanāgarī भारतीय वायु सेना IAST Bhartiya Vāyu Senā is the air arm of the Armed Forces of India and has the
In popular culture
The islands are prominently featured in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Sign of the Four. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930 was an Anglo-Scottish Author most noted for his stories about the Sherlock Holmes is a famous fictional detective of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in Publication in 1887 The Sign of the Four ( 1890) (also called The Sign of Four see " Publishing history " below was the second Novel featuring
See also
References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. This article is one of a series providing information about endemism among birds in the World's various zoogeographic zones The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
External links
- Andaman
- Andaman District (official site)
- Andaman Association, Lonely Islands
- Videos by Survival International
- News regarding the Andaman Islanders
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