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The Nicobar Islands are an island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean, and are part of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. They are located southeast of the Indian subcontinent, separated by the Bay of Bengal by about 1,300 km.

Contents 1 General description 1.1 Island distribution 2 Administration 3 Nature 3.1 Geology 3.2 Ecology 4 History 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

The Nicobars are separated from the Andaman Islands to the north by the 150 km wide Ten Degree Channel and are 189 km from the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southeast. The Andaman and Nicobar islands separate the Bay of Bengal from the Andaman Sea. Until the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Indira Point, south of Great Nicobar, was the southernmost point in India.

The Nicobar islands include 22 islands of various sizes, the largest being Great Nicobar. The total land area of the chain is 1841 km². The highest point on the Nicobars is Mount Thullier at 642 m.

The population of the islands was 42,026 in 2001, roughly 65% of whom are indigenous peoples (the Nicobarese and Shompen peoples, listed among the Scheduled Tribes of India), and 35% migrants from India and Sri Lanka.

The islands cluster into three groups. The northern group includes

• Car Nicobar (127 km²)
• uninhabited Batti Malv (2 km²).

The central group includes

• Chowra (8 km²)
• Teressa (101 km²)
• Poahat (13.3 km²)
• Katchal (174 km²)
• Camorta (188 km²)
• Nancowry (67 km²)
• Trinket (86 km²)
• the Isle of Man and Tillangchong (17 km²) are uninhabited. Tillangchong is a wildlife sanctuary.

The southern group includes

• Great Nicobar (1045 km²)
• Little Nicobar (157 km²)
• Kondul (4 km²)
• Pulomilo (1 km²)
• the islets of Meroe, Trak, Treis, Menchal, Cubra, Pigeon, and Megapod are uninhabited. Megapod is a wildlife sanctuary.

The Islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India. The capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory is Port Blair on South Andaman.

The Union Territory is divided into two districts, Andaman district and Nicobar district (the latter encompassing all of the Nicobars).

The Indian Government presently restricts access to the Nicobars by special permit, and in general non-Indian citizens are forbidden from visiting the Nicobar Islands.^{[citation needed]}

The Nicobar Islands are part of a great island arc created by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate with Eurasia. The collision lifted the Himalayas and most of the Indonesian islands, and created a long arc of highlands and islands, which includes the Arakan Yoma range of Myanmar, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and the islands off the west coast of Sumatra, including the Banyak Islands and Mentawai Islands.

The climate is warm and tropical, with temperatures ranging from 22 to 30°C. Rainfall is heavy due to annual monsoons and measures around 3000 to 3800 mm each year. The vegetation of the Nicobars is typically divided into the coastal mangrove forests and the interior evergreen and deciduous Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests. Additionally, several islands contain extensive interior grasslands, though these are thought to result from human intervention.

The Nicobar islands are recognized as a distinct terrestrial ecoregion, the Nicobar Islands rain forests, with many endemic species.

As a result of lower sea levels during the ice ages, the Andaman Islands were linked to the Southeast Asian mainland, but it is not believed that the Nicobar islands ever had a land bridge to the continent. Lower sea levels did link the islands to one another: Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar were linked to each other, and Nancowry, Chaura, Katchall, Trinka, Camorta, and the nearby smaller islands were linked to one another as well.

See also:

• Endemic birds of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The Nicobar islands are believed to have been inhabited for thousands of years. Six indigenous Nicobarese languages are spoken on the islands, which are part of the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family, which includes Mon, Khmer and Vietnamese languages of Southeast Asia, and the Munda languages of India. An indigenous tribe living at the southern tip of Great Nicobar, called the Shompen, may be of Mesolithic Southeast Asian origin.[1]

The history of organized European colonization on the islands began with the Danish East India Company in 1754/56 when they were administrated under the name of Frederiksøerne from Tranquebar (in continental Danish India); they were repeatedly abandoned due to outbreaks of malaria: 1784 - 1807/09, 1830 - 1834 and finally from 1848 gradually for good. Between 1778 and 1783, Austria attempted to establish a colony on the islands on the mistaken assumption that Denmark had abandoned its claims to the islands.

Danish involvement ended formally on 16 October 1868 when the Danish rights to the Nicobar Islands were sold to Britain, which made them part of British India by 1869 when the British took possession ([2]).

The islands were occupied by Japan between 1942 and 1945. Together with the Andaman Islands, they became a union territory of India in 1950.

On 26 December 2004 the coast of the Nicobar Islands was devastated by a 10-15 m high tsunami following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. At least 6000 people (possibly a conservative estimate) were believed to have been killed on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands during the disaster. Reports put the death toll on Katchal Island alone at 4,600. Several islands were heavily damaged with initial reports of islands broken in two or three pieces and coral reefs moved above water. Teressa Island was said to have been split into two pieces and Trinkat Island into three pieces. Some estimates said that the islands were moved as much as 100 feet (30 m) by the earthquake. Indira Point was reported beneath sea level and its lightstation and crew missing. Surveyors were dispatched as initial reports were considered unreliable.

More than two months after the disaster, no contact had been made with seven bands totalling about 150 of the 389 total Shompen.

On July 24th, 2005, a strong earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, struck the Nicobar Islands but there was no immediate report of death or destruction.

• Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve
• Great Nicobar

This article does not cite any references or sources. (June 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

• WorldStatesmen- India
• Post-tsunami satellite photos from India's National Remote Sensing Agency (Alternate Link)

v • d • e Danish overseas colonies and territories
Former colonies	Danish Gold Coast (Danish Guinea) Danish India Tranquebar (Tharangambadi) • Balasore • Frederiksnagore (Serampore) • Dannemarksnagore (Gondalpara) • Calicut (Kozhikode) • Oddeway Torre (Malabar Coast) • Frederiksøerne (Nicobar Islands) Danish West Indies (U.S. Virgin Islands)
Current overseas territories	Faroe Islands · Greenland
See also Danish East India Company • Danish West India Company

Coordinates: 7°05′N, 93°48′E