Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Andaman Islands Highlights
Regress to infantile laziness and happiness on
Neil Island
(
Click here
)
Dive, snorkel and socialise on
Havelock Island
(
Click here
)
Glimpse Port Blair's colonial history at
Ross Island
(
Click here
)
Experience the true wilds of Northern Andaman in
Kalipur
(
Click here
) while island-hopping to pristine
beaches and coral reefs
Find Butler Bay and paradise on
Little Andaman
(
Click here
)
History
The date of initial human settlement in the Andamans and Nicobars is lost to history. An-
thropologists say stone-tool crafters have lived here for 2000 years, and scholars of human
migration believe local indigenous tribes have roots in Negrito and Malay ethnic groups in
Southeast Asia. Otherwise, these specks in the sea have been a constant source of legend to
outside visitors.
The 10th-century Persian adventurer Buzurg Ibn Shahriyar described an island chain in-
habited by cannibals, Marco Polo added that the natives had dogs' heads, and tablets in
Thanjavur (Tanjore) in Tamil Nadu named the archipelago Timaittivu: the Impure Islands.
None of the above was exactly tourism-brochure stuff, but visitors kept coming: the
Marathas in the late 17th century and, 200 years later, the British, who used the Andamans
as a penal colony for political dissidents. In WWII some islanders greeted the invading
Japanese as liberators, but despite installing Indian politicians as (puppet) administrators,
the Japanese military proved to be harsh occupiers.
Following Independence in 1947, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were incorporated
into the Indian Union. With migration from the mainland (including Bengali refugees flee-
ing the chaos of partition), the population has grown from a few thousand to more than
350,000. During this influx, tribal land rights and environmental protection were often dis-
regarded; some conditions are improving but indigenous tribes remain largely in decline.
The islands were devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, offshore aftershocks
and the resulting tsunami. The Nicobars were especially hard hit; some estimate a fifth of
the population was killed; others were relocated to Port Blair and many have yet to return.
But by and large normalcy has returned.
