Key Facts

• A union territory of India consisting of 572 islands at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
• North of Acehin Indonesia and separated from Thailand and Myanmar by the Andaman Sea.
• Separated by the 150 km wide Ten Degree Channel.
• The territory’s capital is the city of Port Blair.
• The Andaman Islands are also home to the Sentinelese people, an uncontacted tribe.
• The Sentinelese might be the only people currently known to not have reached further than a Paleolithic level of technology.
• The highest point is located in North Andaman Island is Saddle Peak.
• Recently, Ross Island was renamed as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island; Neil Island as Shaheed Island; and Havelock Islandas Swaraj Island.
• Tropical rainforest canopy, made of a mixed flora with elements from Indian, Myanmar, Malaysian.
• Besides the Great Andamanese, the other four PVTGs are Jarawas, Onges, Sentinelese and Shorn Pens.
• Among the five, the Great Andamanese are the only ones who visit and live in the capital city of Port Blair frequently.
• The PVTGs are communities that are more vulnerable among tribal groups, and are put under a special category by the government of India.
• While five among the nine Great Andamanese who are infected are residents of Port Blair, four others live in the remote Strait Island that is reserved for the tribe.
• Strait Island is an island of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the North and Middle Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Survival International, is a human rights organisation campaigning for the rights of tribes.
• The Andaman and Nicobars are separated by the Ten Degree Channel which is 150 Kms.
• Dugong, the gentle sea cow is the state animal.
• Andaman Padauk is the state tree.
• Andaman Wood Pigeon is the state bird.
• The Sentinelese is an endangered hunter-gatherer tribe living on the North Sentinel Island of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. They are considered as the most isolated Palaeolithic tribes of the world.
• North Sentinel Island is home to one of the most isolated Palaeolithic tribes of the world.
• Barren Island of the Andaman & Nicobar Island group is the only active volcano not just in India but the whole of South Asia.
• Indira Point in Great Nicobar is the Southern-most point while East Island in North Andaman is the Northern-most Island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• The Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge & Sentineles, all of Negrito Origin, in the Andaman group of Islands, while the tribes in the Nicobar Islands are the Nicobarese and the Shompen, both of Mongoloid Stock.

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