ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS… Port Blair, being the capital city of this territory is most densely populated area and the place from where one can avail all his daily needs with the least effort. Andaman & Nicobar Islands is a submarine mountain range spreaded in the sea from Indian Ocean to Bay of Bengal. It is almost 1200 kms from both Chennai and Kolkata. It is a group of 572 islands out of which only 37 are inhabited. The total land area of these islands is approximately 8,249 km2.
Andaman, is the biggest island spreaded from Port Blair in the south to Diglipur in north, which is almost 400 kms by road journey. The capital of Nicobar Island (which is the second biggest island of this territory) is Car Nicobar. There is no other way of reaching Andaman except Airways and Sea Route. The only entrance into the territory is Port Blair either by a ship or flight.
Almost 75% of the total land area is covered under forest. Agriculture, fisheries & tourism are the main sources of livelihood.
The original population of the Andaman and Nicobar islands consist of aboriginal indigenous people, i.e. tribal people. Several years before, they were dwelling in the forests and jungles of the islands, leading a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
The Andamanese and Nicobarese can be split into two broad tribal groups mainly based on their place of origin. The Andaman Islands are home to four ‘Negrito’ tribes called as, the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese. Where as the Nicobar Islands are home to two ‘Mongoloid’ tribes – the Shompen and Nicobarese.The ‘Negrito’ tribes are believed to have arrived in the islands from Africa up to 60,000 years ago. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers, hunting wild pig and monitor lizard, and catching fish with bows and arrows. The ‘Mongoloid’ tribes probably came to the islands from the Malay-Burma coast several thousand years ago.
The person at the post of Lieutenant Governor is the head of administration. The total population of the territory is 380580 (according to 2011 census). The majority of people of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are Hindus (70%), with Christians forming a large minority of 20% of the population, according to the 2011 census of India. There are small but significant Muslims (10%) and Sikh minorities. The official language is hindi and english. But one can find the people speaking bengali, tamil, telugu, malayalam and kannada too.
The islands have moderate temperature and there is no fury of hot summer or chilling winter.
Normal rainfall at Port Blair: 3900 mm, Mean Minimum Temperature : 23.2° C
Mean Maximum Temperature: 31° C & Mean relative Humidity : 80 %.
The best season for travelling starts from the mid of september and remain till the end of may. After that, it starts raining and can interrupt your happy tour.
TSUNAMI: On 26 December 2004 the coasts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were devastated by a 10 m (33 ft) high tsunami following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. More than 2,000 people lost their lives, more than 4,000 children were orphaned or suffered the loss of one parent, and a minimum of 40,000 people were rendered homeless. The worst affected Nicobar islands were Katchal and Indira Point. The lighthouse at Indira Point was damaged but has been repaired since then. The territory lost a large amount of area which is now submerged.