Dialogue  April - June, 2003 , Volume 4  No. 4

The Andaman & Nicobar group of islands is located in the Bay of Bengal between longitude 920 to 940 east and latitude 60 to 14o north. An archipelago, of 572 islands, covering an area of 8249 sq kms, is spread over about 780 sq. kms, from north to south in Bay of Bengal. The Andaman group of islands is 219 miles in length, its extreme width, however is nowhere more than 32 miles. The most important islands in the group are the three Andaman Islandss north, middle and south Andaman, popularly known as Great Andaman. These three islands are separated from one another by narrow straits. Port Blair is the capital of Andaman and Nicobar group of islands. These pristine islands are located far from the mainland, but within the close quarters with some of the south east Asian. Port Blair is linked by sea route to all the 38 inhabited islands. (26 islands in Andaman & 12 islands in Nicobar) The islands form top of the submerged part of the continuous mountain range, stretching in a curve from cape Negrais Myanmar to Achin Head in Sumatra. The islands are covered with dense forests. The climate is tropical. The average rainfall during the 5-6 month’s rainy season is 3180 mms. Elephant is the main source of transportation of the logs from the forests.

The term ‘Andaman’ owes its origin to Malays, who have known the islands from time immemorial, since the islands provided them with slaves. They used to sail across the seas, capture some of the aborigines and give them away as slaves in trade. The Malays called them the islands of Handuman because that is how they pronounced the name of Handuman in Ramayana, and Handuman eventually become Andaman.

According to Phaley (1997), Clandius Pkolemaeus, popularly known as Ptolemy located these islands in his maps in the 2nd century. He described these islands as islands of the cannibals. Reference of these islands is found in the writings of Chinese travellor, -I-Tsing (672 AD) also. Marco Polo passed by these islands during the course of his travels in AD 1260. In his travel acc