Andaman and Nicobar Islands GK: Capital, Tribes and Facts

The correct answer is B, Barren Island. This small uninhabited island in the Andaman Sea, north-east of the territorial capital, carries the only confirmed active volcano in India and in the whole of South Asia. It has erupted repeatedly in recent decades, and because the island has no permanent population the eruptions cause no loss of life.

Option A, Narcondam Island, is the most tempting wrong answer, because it too is a volcanic island of the same arc, but its volcano is dormant; Narcondam is better known as the only home of the Narcondam hornbill. Option C, Car Nicobar, is the administrative centre of the Nicobar district and lies just south of the Ten Degree Channel, but it has no volcano. Option D, Little Andaman, lies north of that channel and is known for the Onge tribe. Remember the pair: Barren is active, Narcondam is dormant.

The correct answer is C, Little Andaman and Car Nicobar. The Ten Degree Channel runs along the ten degree north parallel and divides the Andaman group from the Nicobar group, with Little Andaman on its northern side and Car Nicobar on its southern side. It is a busy sea lane and the single most asked channel from this topic.

Option A describes the Coco Channel, which lies between North Andaman and the Coco Islands belonging to Myanmar. Option B describes Duncan Passage, between South Andaman and Little Andaman. Option D describes the Nine Degree Channel, which is in Lakshadweep and separates Minicoy from the main group of those islands; mixing up the Nine Degree and Ten Degree Channels is the commonest mistake in this question, so link nine with Lakshadweep and ten with Andaman and Nicobar.

The correct answer is B, Saddle Peak. Saddle Peak rises to 732 metres in North Andaman and is the highest point in the whole union territory. It gives its name to Saddle Peak National Park, which protects the tropical evergreen forest on its slopes.

Option A, Mount Thullier, at 642 metres on Great Nicobar, is the highest point of the Nicobar group but not of the territory as a whole; the question is deliberately framed to catch candidates who remember only this name. Option C, Mount Harriet, in South Andaman, is a well known hill and a national park, since renamed Mount Manipur National Park, but it is much lower. Option D, Mount Diavolo, is a hill in Middle Andaman and is also lower than Saddle Peak. Learn the pair of figures together: 732 metres for Saddle Peak and 642 metres for Mount Thullier.

The correct answer is A, Great Nicobar. Indira Point lies at the southern tip of Great Nicobar, the largest island of the Nicobar group, and marks the southernmost land point of the Republic of India, a little above six and three quarter degrees north. It was earlier called Pygmalion Point and was partly submerged when the land subsided during the earthquake and tsunami of December 2004.

Option B, Little Nicobar, lies to the north of Great Nicobar and does not reach as far south. Option C, North Sentinel, is in the Andaman group far to the north and is famous as the home of the uncontacted Sentinelese. Option D, Middle Andaman, is in the middle of the Andaman group. A related point worth remembering is that Kanyakumari is the southernmost point of mainland India, while Indira Point is the southernmost point of the country including its islands.

The correct answer is B, Sri Vijaya Puram. The Government of India announced in September 2024 that the capital of the union territory would be renamed Sri Vijaya Puram, replacing a name that came from the colonial period. The new name was explained as a tribute to the islands' part in the freedom struggle and to the maritime history of the region.

Option C, Swaraj Puram, is close to Swaraj Dweep, which is the new name of Havelock Island given in 2018, so it is a well designed distractor. Option A, Shaheed Nagar, echoes Shaheed Dweep, the new name of Neil Island from the same 2018 decision. Option D, Netaji Nagar, echoes Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, the new name of Ross Island. Keep the four renamings separate: the capital is Sri Vijaya Puram, and Ross, Neil and Havelock are Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, Shaheed Dweep and Swaraj Dweep.

The correct answer is C, Shompen. The indigenous communities of this territory fall into two racial groups. The Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese of the Andaman group are of Negrito descent and are among the oldest surviving human populations outside Africa. The Shompen and the Nicobarese of the Nicobar group are of Mongoloid descent, and the Shompen live in the forested interior of Great Nicobar.

Option A, Jarawa, live in the western parts of South and Middle Andaman and are Negrito. Option B, Onge, are found on Little Andaman and are Negrito. Option D, Great Andamanese, were once spread across the Andaman group and are Negrito; their numbers are now very small. Remember the simple division: four Negrito tribes in the Andaman group and two Mongoloid communities in the Nicobar group, with the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island still uncontacted.

The correct answer is B, 1896 and 1906. The jail was built at Port Blair over those ten years in the shape of a wheel, with seven wings radiating from a central watchtower and a total of 693 cells. Each cell held one prisoner, and the wings were set so that the back of one faced the front of the next, making communication between prisoners impossible; hence the name cellular. It was declared a national memorial in 1979.

Option A takes the year of the revolt of 1857, after which the islands were first used as a penal settlement, but the jail building itself came four decades later. Option C, 1911 to 1921, covers the period when many revolutionaries including Veer Savarkar were actually serving their terms there, which is why it tempts candidates. Option D falls in the years just before the Japanese occupation of the islands during the Second World War. Fix 1896 to 1906 for construction and 1979 for memorial status.

The correct answer is C, 30 December 1943. During the Japanese occupation of the islands in the Second World War, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose visited Port Blair and hoisted the tricolour there, claiming the islands as the first Indian territory freed from British rule. He gave the Andaman group the name Shaheed and the Nicobar group the name Swaraj, words that were revived in 2018 for Neil Island and Havelock Island.

Option A, 26 January 1943, is picked because of Republic Day, which has no connection with this event. Option B, 21 October 1943, is the day the Provisional Government of Free India, the Azad Hind government, was proclaimed at Singapore, an important date but a different one. Option D, 15 August 1944, uses the Independence Day date and is a pure distractor. Remember 21 October 1943 for the Azad Hind proclamation and 30 December 1943 for the flag hoisting at Port Blair.

The correct answer is C, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep. Ross Island, which had been the administrative headquarters of the British in these islands before an earthquake damaged it, was renamed after Netaji in 2018 to honour his visit and his claim of the islands as free Indian soil. The island lies close to the capital and is known for its ruined colonial buildings.

Option A, Shaheed Dweep, is the new name of Neil Island. Option B, Swaraj Dweep, is the new name of Havelock Island, the best known tourist island of the group. Option D, Sri Vijaya Dweep, does not exist; Sri Vijaya Puram is the new name of the capital town, announced separately in September 2024. The three 2018 renamings and the 2024 renaming of the capital are asked in both directions, so learn each pair carefully.

The correct answer is B, Calcutta High Court. The union territory has no High Court of its own and comes under the jurisdiction of the Calcutta High Court, which holds a circuit bench in the territorial capital so that litigants do not have to travel to the mainland for every hearing. The link is historical, since the islands were administered from Bengal in the colonial period.

Option A, Madras High Court, has jurisdiction over Puducherry and is the usual wrong answer here because of the geographical closeness of the islands to the southern coast. Option C, Andhra Pradesh High Court, and option D, Orissa High Court, have no such jurisdiction. Remember the related pairings for union territories: Delhi has its own High Court, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh share one, Lakshadweep comes under Kerala, Puducherry under Madras, and Andaman and Nicobar under Calcutta.

The correct answer is A, Wandoor, South Andaman. The Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, set up near Wandoor on the south-western coast of South Andaman, protects a stretch of coral reefs, mangroves and small islands along with the turtles, molluscs and reef fish that live there. It is the best known marine protected area of the territory and is often visited for glass-bottom boat viewing of the reefs.

Option B, Campbell Bay, in Great Nicobar, is the location of Campbell Bay National Park, a different protected area, and Galathea National Park is also on that island. Option C, Diglipur, in North Andaman, is close to Saddle Peak National Park, which is a terrestrial park, not a marine one. Option D, Car Nicobar, is the headquarters of the Nicobar district and has no national park of this name. The other marine park to remember is Rani Jhansi Marine National Park.

The correct answer is A, its population density was the lowest among the union territories. With a population of 3,80,581 spread over 8,249 square kilometres, the territory recorded a density of only 46 persons per square kilometre at the 2011 Census, by far the lowest among the union territories, because most of its land is forest and most of its islands are uninhabited.

Option B is wrong because its literacy rate of 86.27 per cent was well above the national figure and among the highest in the country. Option C is wrong because the sex ratio was 876 females per thousand males, below the national average, a legacy of migration of working men to the islands. Option D is wrong because Delhi had the largest population among the union territories by a very wide margin, while the Andaman and Nicobar Islands had one of the smallest.