Lakshadweep GK: Islands, Atolls, Channels and Exam Facts

The correct answer is B, Kavaratti. Kavaratti is the capital and administrative headquarters of Lakshadweep, the seat of the Administrator appointed by the President, and the island where the naval base INS Dweeprakshak was commissioned in 2012. It is one of the ten inhabited islands of the territory.

Option A, Andrott, is the largest island of Lakshadweep by area, about 4.9 square kilometres, and the one nearest the mainland, but it is not the capital. Option C, Minicoy, is the southernmost island, separated from the rest of the group by the Nine Degree Channel, and the only island where Mahl is spoken; it is a favourite distractor because it is the best known island after the capital. Option D, Agatti, has the only airport of the territory, which again makes it sound like a headquarters. Keep the three apart as capital, largest island and airport.

The correct answer is C, Andrott. Andrott, spread over about 4.9 square kilometres, is the largest island of Lakshadweep and also the closest to the Kerala coast. It is the only island of the group whose length runs east to west, while the others lie north to south, and it is historically important as the island from which Islam is said to have spread through the group.

Option A, Kavaratti, is the capital and the seat of administration, but smaller in area. Option B, Minicoy, is the second largest island and the southernmost, separated by the Nine Degree Channel and distinct in language and culture, which is why many candidates mark it. Option D, Kadmat, is a long, narrow island known for its lagoon and tourism. The whole territory covers only thirty-two square kilometres, so these are all very small islands; the examiner simply wants the ranking.

The correct answer is B, Kalpeni and Minicoy. The Nine Degree Channel runs between Minicoy, the southernmost island of Lakshadweep, and the main body of the group to its north, where Kalpeni lies. It is one of the busy shipping lanes of the Arabian Sea.

Option A describes the Eight Degree Channel, which lies further south and separates Minicoy from Maliku Atoll, the northernmost island of the Maldives; the two channels form the classic pair of this chapter and are often interchanged in the options. Option C describes the Ten Degree Channel, which separates the Andaman group from the Nicobar group in the Bay of Bengal, nearly two thousand kilometres away. Option D describes the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar, with Adam's Bridge between them. Learn the three numbered channels together: eight for the Maldives, nine for Minicoy, ten for the Nicobars.

The correct answer is B, Minicoy. Minicoy, the southernmost island of Lakshadweep, stands apart in language and culture from the rest of the territory. Its people speak Mahl, which is the Dhivehi language of the Maldives, and write it in the Thaana script, while the rest of Lakshadweep speaks Malayalam and its local dialect, called Jeseri or Dweep Bhasha.

Options A, C and D, Amini, Kiltan and Chetlat, all belong to the northern Amindivi group, where Malayalam is spoken; none of them uses Mahl or the Thaana script. The reason for Minicoy's difference is geography: the Eight Degree Channel is all that lies between it and the Maldives, while the Nine Degree Channel cuts it off from the rest of Lakshadweep. The island is also known for masmin, its smoked tuna, and for its seafaring tradition.

The correct answer is B, 10. Lakshadweep is made up of thirty-six islands, reefs and submerged banks, of which ten are inhabited: Kavaratti, Agatti, Amini, Kadmat, Kiltan, Chetlat, Bitra, Andrott, Kalpeni and Minicoy. Bitra is the smallest of the inhabited islands, and the remaining islands, such as Bangaram, Thinnakara and Pitti, carry only resorts, coconut groves or nesting birds.

Option D, thirty-six, is the total number of islands, reefs and banks in the territory and is the commonest wrong choice, because candidates remember the number but not what it counts. Option A, four, and Option C, seventeen, match nothing in this chapter. Hold the pair of numbers together with the area: thirty-six islands in all, ten inhabited, thirty-two square kilometres of land, the smallest area of any state or union territory of India.

The correct answer is C, Lakshadweep. The thirty-six islands, reefs and banks of Lakshadweep together have a land area of only thirty-two square kilometres, the smallest of any state or union territory of India. The territory also has the smallest population: the Census of 2011 counted 64,473 people, and its literacy rate in that census was 91.85 per cent.

Option A, Puducherry, covers about 490 square kilometres in four scattered districts. Option B, Chandigarh, covers about 114 square kilometres and is the most densely populated union territory, which makes candidates think of it as the smallest. Option D, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, formed by merger in 2020, is larger than both. Note the contrast examiners like: Lakshadweep is the smallest in area and population, while Ladakh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are the largest union territories by area.

The correct answer is B, Lakshadweep. Pitti is a tiny uninhabited rock and sandbank in the Lakshadweep group, declared a bird sanctuary because terns, including the sooty tern and the brown noddy, nest there in large numbers. It is the only notified bird sanctuary of the territory, and visits are restricted to protect the nesting season.

Option A, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has its own protected areas, among them the Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park and Saddle Peak, but not Pitti. Option C, Puducherry, has the Oussudu lake area and no island sanctuary of this kind. Option D is not even a separate union territory now, Daman and Diu having been merged with Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 2020. Remember Pitti with the territory's other environmental facts: coral atolls, lagoons and the risk of bleaching and erosion.

The correct answer is C, 1973. The group became a union territory on 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act, when it was separated from the Malabar district of the old Madras State, and it carried the long name Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands until 1973, when it was renamed Lakshadweep. The name is from Sanskrit and means a hundred thousand islands.

Option A, 1956, is the year the union territory was created, not the year it was renamed, and it is the trap in this question. Option B, 1962, is the year the Constitution's provisions for union territories were amended in other respects and has nothing to do with this name. Option D, 1987, is the year Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Goa became states, a different reorganisation. Pair the dates in memory: union territory in 1956, present name in 1973.

The correct answer is B, Agatti. Agatti has the only airport of Lakshadweep, so every visitor who flies to the territory lands there and travels on to other islands by boat or helicopter. The island is also known for its wide lagoon and is one of the places where tourists are allowed to stay.

Option A, Kavaratti, is the capital and the seat of the Administrator, and it is natural to expect the airport at the headquarters, which is exactly why this option is offered. Option C, Bitra, is the smallest and least populated inhabited island and could not hold an airstrip. Option D, Kalpeni, lies just north of the Nine Degree Channel and is known for its lagoon and storm-thrown coral banks. Remember the three service points of the territory together: the capital at Kavaratti, the airport at Agatti and the sanctuary at Pitti.

The correct answer is B, the Kerala High Court. Lakshadweep has no High Court of its own and falls under the jurisdiction of the Kerala High Court at Kochi, which is the nearest mainland coast and the state whose language, Malayalam, the islanders speak. The territory has no legislature either; it is administered by an Administrator appointed by the President, forms a single district, and sends one member to the Lok Sabha from a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

Option A, the Madras High Court, is historically tempting because the islands were part of the Madras State until 1956, but jurisdiction moved with the reorganisation; the Madras High Court today also covers Puducherry. Option C, the Bombay High Court, covers Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu along with Maharashtra and Goa. Option D, the Karnataka High Court, has no union territory under it.