overview
Long shrouded in mystery and legend, the Andaman Islands have just started to emerge on the independent traveller's list of must see places in the world. They are devilishly hard to find which can only be a good thing! Picture postcard islands are not meant to be found, and overrun. Sprinkled over a corner of the Indian Ocean, the islands are part of India but geographically closer to Myanmar and Thailand. They are not easy to get to but then the fun is all in the journey, right?
Located in the Bay of Bengal, the islands form the western perimeter of the Andaman Sea. They still retain the original wild and untamed character of this pocket of South East Asia and are swathed in over 86% primary rainforest.
Due to the government's strict controls and and the untiring efforts of environmentalists, the Andamans are pristine and breathtakingly beautiful. There is more virgin beach here, all of it spectacular, than anyone could possibly enjoy in a lifetime. Tropical rainforests abound in rare and endemic species of flora and fauna. Cut off from the continent for thousands of years, many species have evolved a little differently from their mainland cousins. There are hundreds of bird species, four out of five species of sea turtles, including the giant leatherback, and wild saltwater crocodiles inhabit vast mangrove eco-systems.
Ever since Jacques Cousteau showcased the stunning underwater landscapes and marine life of this remote destination in his film,” Andaman Islands: Invisible Islands” in 1991, scuba divers have jumped at the rare chance of being able to dive in these unexplored waters. An explosion of fish life greets you at most dive sites, with both small and large species crowding out each other to take a peek at that uncommon scuba diver. Pelagics like sharks, mantas, and whales are frequent visitors to the more challenging sites such as Minerva, Invisible Banks, Campbell Shoal, BarrenIsland and Narcondam. So don those tanks of air, snap on that mask, and as you hear the hiss of the air regulator, slip below the surface into what is probably the final undiscovered frontier for scuba diving in South East Asia!
anthropology
The Andaman & Nicobar Islands are considered to be one of the world's unique and most important anthropological hot spots. Since prehistoric times, these islands have been the home of six aboriginal tribes - the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawas, and the Sentinelese in the Andaman chain, and the Shompen and the Nicobarese tribes of the southern Nicobar chain. The Andaman tribes are of Negroid descent while the Nicobar tribes are of Mongoloid descent. The Great Andamanese, the Onge and the Nicobarese are almost extinct in their pure form and have mixed with the migrant Indian populace, while the Jarawas, Shompen and the Sentinelese have retreated to remote forest and island habitats far removed from the outside world.
Particularly interesting are the Sentinelese, which are the only inhabitants of North Sentinel Island, an area of about 60 sq. kms. No visitors are allowed; no camera crews, no journalists, no scientists, and no researchers. Contact has been attempted only a few times by the Indian government and the tribe have made it rather clear-by throwing primitive spears and shooting arrows at the party-that they do not want to be disturbed. Very little is known about this tribe - some consider them to the last surviving Paleolithic tribe in the world!