A whisper of paradise. The Andamans - a land that time forgot. Shrouded in myth, these Bay Islands lie in the Bay of Bengal, a little over a 1,000 km from the east coast of India. Until the turn of the century, they remained untouched while the rest of the world surfed ahead on the waves of modernisation.
At one time, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands were solely inhabited by indigenous tribes. The first reference to these islands comes from Ptolemy in the 2nd century, who called the Andamans, "the Land of the Cannibals". Several centuries later the Chinese traveler I'Ching talks about the Nicobars as "the Land of the Naked". Marco polo mentions the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the account of his travels during the 12th century.
However, it wasn't until the year 1777 when English adventurer John Ritchie visited these islands and submitted his report that prompted Archibald Blair to conduct a survey of these islands and to establish the first settlement on Chatam Island. Due to bad weather and administration problems, it was abandoned in 1796. Finally, 60 years later, in 1857, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands were reoccupied by the British to set up a penal settlement for the Great Patriots of the first war of Indian Independence.
This saw the birth of the dreaded cellular jail. Unlike other jails of it's time, it had only cells for solitary confinement instead of dormitories. Each of these 698 cells are stained with the blood of India's freedom fighters. The gallows of Viper Island and the cellular jail in Port Blair still echo the diabolic tyranny and the atrocities of the British. The islands fell briefly to the Japanese during the second world war, until they were reoccupied by the British in 1945. On the morning of India's independence, August 15th, 1947, the world saw these treasured beads, strung alongside the of the republic of India designated as the "THE UNION TERRITORY OF THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS"... with PORT BLAIR as its capital!
Facts and Figures
The Andaman Islands are located off the coast of India in the Bay of Bengal 92 to 94 Longitude and 6 to 14 Latitude
Area: The total Andaman district is 6,408 sq km
Capital: Port Blair
Altitude: Varies from sea level to 732 metres
Climate: Tropical throughout the year with mean minimum temperature at 25 C and maximum at 30 C. Humidity is high 70% to 90% with a gentle breeze blowing all the time. The weather is generally pleasant with an average rainfall of 3,000 mm (May to mid-September). Forest Coverage: 92%. Forest Area: 86%.
Best Season: October to May