The Nicobar Islands consist of 22 islands, of which 13 are inhabited. The islands extend about 260km from north and south, and form three groups. The northern group is composed of Car Nicobar, the northernmost island, and Batti Malv. The central group includes Nancowry, Katchal, Kamorta, Teressa, Chowra, Tillangchong, and several smaller islets. The southern group includes Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and several smaller islets. Great Nicobar is the largest (921km2 (356sqmi)), highest (Mount Thullier, 670 m), and southernmost island.[1]
The Andaman Sea lies east of the islands, and the Bay of Bengal to the west. The Ten Degree Channel separates the Car Nicobar from the southernmost of the Andaman Islands 150km north. Sumatra lies 189 miles south of Great Nicobar.[1]
The surface geology of the islands consists of Eocene sedimentary rocks (sandstone, shale, and siltstone) at lower elevations, with intrusions of ultrabasic igneous rock. Serpentinite and gabbro are found at higher elevations.[1]
Only Great Nicobar has perennial streams. The island has five perennial rivers – the Galathea, Jubilee, Amrit Kaur, Dak Aniang, and Dak Tayal – which all originate from Mount Thullier. The Galathea River is the longest, flowing southwards for about 30km to empty into the sea at Galathea Bay near the southern tip of the island.[3]
Climate
The Nicobar Islands have a tropical rain forest climate. Average temperatures range from 22 to 30°C. Average annual rainfall ranges from 3,000 to 3,800mm. Heavier rainfall coincides ith the monsoon winds, which come from the southwest from May to September, and from the northeast between October and December.[1]
Flora
Plant communities on the islands include mangroves and coastal forests near the shore, and evergreen and deciduous forests in the interiors of the islands.
There are 580 species of flowering plants on the islands. Approximately 14% are endemic to the islands. The flora of the islands shares more affinities with Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula than with the Andamans or Myanmar; only 28% of flowering plant species are shared with the Andamans.[1][5]
There are 25 native mammal species on the islands, principally bats and rats. Large mammals include the wild boar (Sus scrofa) and Nicobar macaque (Macaca fascicularis umbrosa). Four species are endemic to the islands[1] – the Nicobar shrew (Crocidura nicobarica) on Great Nicobar, the Nicobar treeshrew (Tupaia nicobarica) on Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar, the Palm rat (Rattus palmarum) on Car Nicobar and Great Nicobar, and the Nicobar flying fox (Pteropus faunulus) throughout the islands.
82 species of birds are native to the islands. These include eight species of heron, seven hawk species, six kingfisher species, and six species of pigeon. Five species are endemic, including the Nicobar serpent-eagle (Spilornis minimus), Nicobar sparrowhawk (Accipiter butleri), Nicobar parakeet (Psittacula caniceps), and Nicobar bulbul (Hypsipetes nicobariensis). The Nicobar scrubfowl (Megapodius nicobariensis) once inhabited the Andaman islands as well, but is now extinct there and found only on the Nicobar Islands. Four species, the Andaman wood-pigeon (Columba palumboides), Andaman cuckoo-dove (Macropygia rufipennis), Andaman boobook (Ninox affinis), and white-headed starling (Sturnus erythropygius), are limited to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The ecoregion constitutes the Nicobar Islands endemic bird area.[1][6]
There are 43 reptile species on the islands, of which eleven are endemic. There are eleven species of amphibians, all frogs and toads, including two endemic species, the Nicobar tree frog (Polypedates insularis) and Nicobar cricket-frog (Minervarya nicobariensis).[1]
People
The islands have been inhabited for centuries. The Nicobarese people live on twelve of the islands. Most Nicobarese live in villages, and grow a variety of tree, root, and vegetable crops for food, fiber, and building materials, including coconut, areca palm, papaya, banana, breadfruit, jackfruit, and yams. Pigs and chickens are kept for food, and wild fruits, roots, tubers, and fibers are gathered from the forests.[4]
Larger plantations of coconut have been established near the coast, and tapioca, sweet potato, sugarcane, and cashew are grown in the interior of the more populated islands.[4]
The 2011 census recorded 36,842 people on the islands. Starting in the late 1960s the Indian government encouraged people from mainland India to settle on the islands, and by the late 1990s mainlanders constituted over a third of the population.[1] The islands, together with the Andaman Islands, constitute the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India. The Nicobar Islands are administered as a separate district. Malacca on Car Nicobar is the district's administrative headquarters.
Conservation and threats
57% of the islands' land area is in protected areas.[2] A 1997 assessment found that only 14% of the islands' forests had been removed.[1] A 2017 assessment found that 18% of the islands' unprotected area is still covered in primary forest.[7]
The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve was designated on Great Nicobar by UNESCO in 2013. The reserve has a total area of 103,870 ha. The core area of 53,623 ha comprises Cambell Bay and Galathea National parks. A buffer area of 34,877 includes lands adjacent to and between the two parks. There is also a transitional area of 10,070 ha, including 5,300 marine hectares.[8][1]
Related Research Articles
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, 150 kilometres (93 mi) northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) southeast of the Indian subcontinent, across the Bay of Bengal, they are part of India, as the Nicobar district within the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Nicobar pigeon or Nicobar dove is a bird found on small islands and in coastal regions from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, east through the Indonesian Archipelago, to the Solomons and Palau. It is the only living member of the genus Caloenas alongside the extinct spotted green pigeon and Kanaka pigeon, and is the closest living relative of the extinct dodo and Rodrigues solitaire.
Car Nicobar is the northernmost of the Nicobar Islands. It is also one of three local administrative divisions of the Indian district of Nicobar, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Annual rainfall is 2800 millimetres.
The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve encompasses a large part of the island of Great Nicobar, the largest of the Nicobar Islands in the Indian Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Nicobars lie in the Bay of Bengal, eastern Indian Ocean, 190 km (120 mi) to the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The reserve has a total core area of approximately 885 km2, surrounded by a 12 km-wide "forest buffer zone". In year 2013 it was included in the list of Man and Biosphere program of UNESCO to promote sustainable development based on local community effort and sound science.
Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra. It is part of India, in the Nicobar district within the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Nancowry is an island in the central part of the Nicobar Islands chain, located in the northeast Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
Trinket Island is one of the 24 islands that make up the Nicobar Islands chain, located in the northeast Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. It is located east of Kamorta Island.
Nicobar district is one of three districts in the Indian union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The district's administrative territory encompasses all of the Nicobar Islands, which are located in the Indian Ocean, between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The headquarters of the district is the village of Malacca, located on the island of Car Nicobar.
Middle Button Island National Park is an Indian national park located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The park was created in 1979 and is situated about 200 km (124 mi) northeast of Port Blair, capital of the island group. The total area that the national park covers is about 64 km2 (25 sq mi). Along with the neighbouring islands of North Button and South Button, both also national parks, it forms part of the Rani Jhansi Marine National Park off the coast of South Andaman Island.
Galathea National Park is a national park located in the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located on the island of Great Nicobar in the Nicobar Islands, which lie in the eastern Indian Ocean.
Campbell Bay National Park is a national park in India, located on the island of Great Nicobar, the largest of the Nicobar Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean some 190 km to the north of Sumatra. It was gazetted as a national park of India in 1992, and forms part of the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve. The park has an approximate area of some 426 km2, and is separated from the smaller Galathea National Park by a 12-km wide forest buffer zone. The climate is humid and warm.
Katchal is one of the Nicobar Islands, India.
Bentinckia is a genus of palms in the family Arecaceae. The genus is named after William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck a colonial governor general of British India. There are two species of palms in this genus. namely Bentinckia condapanna and Bentinckia nicobarica.
Bentinckia nicobarica is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae endemic to the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It is a palm native to Great Nicobar, Katchal, Nancowry and Car Nicobar islands.
The Nicobarese people are an Austroasiatic-speaking people of the Nicobar Islands, a chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal north of Sumatra, forming part of the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Only 12 of the 19 islands are inhabited. The largest and main island is Great Nicobar. The term Nicobarese refers to the dominant tribes of the Nicobar Islands. On each island, the people have specific names, but together they are the Nicobarese. They call themselves Holchu, which means "friend".
Tillangchong, also known as Tillanchang, is an island and a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India.
Payuha is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located in the Nancowry tehsil.
A large, very high liana, or "climbing tree" in the palm family, Korthalsia laciniosa occurs in the closed forests of Java, Sumatra, the Philippines, Malay Peninsula, Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere in Indochina, and the Nicobar and Andaman Islands.
The Vogelkop–Aru lowland rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in Indonesia. The ecoregion covers the peninsular lowlands of western New Guinea, along with the Aru Islands and other nearby islands.
↑ P. C. Bandopadhyay and A. Carter. "Chapter 2: Introduction to the geography and geomorphology of the Andaman–Nicobar Islands". Geological Society, London, Memoirs, 47, 9-18, 2 February 2017, https://doi.org/10.1144/M47.2.
1 2 Manohara, T.N., Linto, E.L. & Renuka, C. Diversity and conservation of palms in Andaman & Nicobar archipelago. Biodivers Conserv 19, 3655–3666 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9918-6
↑ "Nicobar Islands". Endemic Bird Areas factsheet, BirdLife International (2021). Accessed 5 August 2021. .
↑ Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b.
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