Tides of Change in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Abstract

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) in the Bay of Bengal came to be a part of India via the colonial legacy of a penal settlement, but seldom figured – barring the Indian freedom struggle of 1857 – in the nation's collective consciousness. From Indian independence until the beginning of this millennium, the archipelago was a developmental backwater neglected by mainstream planning interventions. On the other hand, its ecological uniqueness has been recognized for long because this archipelago is encompassed within two global biodiversity hotspots: the Andamans form a part of the Indo-Burma hotspot and the Nicobars form the northwestern extremity of the Sundaland hotspot. Many conservation imperatives have emerged from the high levels of diversity and endemism seen here for many taxa.