ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLAND

The territory is 150 km (93 mi) north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated from Thailand and Burma by the Andaman Sea. It comprises two island groups, the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands, separated by the 10° N parallel, with the Andamans to the north of this latitude, and the Nicobars to the south. The Andaman Sea lies to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the west.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal and a Union Territory of India.

The territory's capital is the Andamanese town of Port Blair. The total land area of the territory is approximately 6,496 km2 (2,508 sq mi). The capital of Nicobar Islands is Car Nicobar. Rajendra Chola I (1014 to 1042 CE), one of the Tamil Chola dynasty kings, occupied Andaman and Nicobar Islands to use it as a strategic naval base to launch a naval expedition against Sriwijaya Empire (a Hindu-Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia). The cholas called the 'Nicobar' island as 'Nakkavaram' which is inscribed on the Tanjore inscription of 1050 CE. Nakkavaram in Tamil means "naked man" or "land of the naked" which should have been evolved to the modern name "Nicobar". Marco Polo (12-13th Century CE) also referred this island as ''Necuverann''.The name of the island has always been 'Andaman' and might represent Handuman, the Malay form of Hanuman.

The islands provided a temporary maritime base for ships of the Marathas in the 17th century. The legendary admiral Kanhoji Angre established naval supremacy with a base in the islands and is credited with attaching those islands to India.There are 572 islands in the territory having an area of 8,249 km2 (3,185 sq mi). Of these, only 38 are permanently inhabited.

List of districts of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.Andaman & Nicobar Islands are divided into 3 districts. Each district is again sub-divided into Sub-Divisions and taluks.

• North and Middle Andaman district 
• Headquarters: Mayabunder
• Diglipur Sub-Division
• Diglipur taluk
• Mayabunder Sub-Division
• Mayabunder taluk
• Rangat taluk
• South Andaman district Headquarters: Port Blair
• Port Blair Sub-Division
• Port Blair taluk
• Ferrargunj taluk
• Little Andaman Sub-Division
• Little Andaman taluka (Hut Bay)
• NICOBAR District Headquarters: Car NICOBAR
• Car NICOBAR Sub-Division
• Car NICOBAR taluk
• Nancowrie Sub-Division
• Nancowrie taluk
• Kamorta taluk
• Teressa taluk
• Katchal taluk
• Great NICOBAR Sub-Division
• Great NICOBAR taluk (Campbell Bay)
• little NICOBAR taluk  

Andaman & NICOBAR Islands are blessed with a unique tropical rainforest canopy, made of a mixed flora with elements from Indian, Myanmarese, Malaysian and endemic floral strains. So far, about 2,200 varieties of plants have been recorded, out of which 200 are endemic and 1,300 do not occur in mainland India. The present forest coverage is claimed to be 86.2% of the total land area.

This atypical forest coverage is made up of twelve types, namely:-

• Giant evergreen forest
• Andamans tropical evergreen forest
• Southern hilltop tropical evergreen forest
• Cane brakes
• Wet bamboo brakes
• Andamans semi-evergreen forest
• Andamans moist deciduous forest
• Andamans secondary moist deciduous forest
• Littoral forest
• Mangrove forest
• Brackish water mixed forest
• Submontane hill valley swamp forest

About 50 varieties of forest mammals are found to occur in the Andaman and NICOBAR Islands. Some are endemic, including the Andaman Wild Boar. Rodents are the largest group with 26 species, followed by 14 species of bat.

ANI has also 270 species of birds (including endemics); the Nicobar island group has a higher endemicity than the Andamans and there are a total of 14 species endemic to ANI. The State Bird of the Andamans is the Andaman Wood pigeon.