Geology

The Nicobar Islands are part of a great island arc created by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate with Eurasia. The collision lifted the Himalayas and most of the Indonesian islands, and created a long arc of highlands and islands, which includes the Arakan Yoma range of Burma, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and the islands off the west coast of Sumatra, including the Banyak Islands and Mentawai Islands.^[3]

Climate

The climate is warm and tropical, with temperatures ranging from 22 to 30 °C (72 to 86 °F). Rainfall is heavy due to annual monsoons and measures around 3,000 to 3,800 mm (120 to 150 in) each year.^[3]

Ecology

A Nicobar pigeon. While named after the Nicobar Islands, it is also found widely in the Malay Archipelago

The Nicobar Islands are recognised as a distinct terrestrial ecoregion, the Nicobar Islands rain forests, with many endemic species.^[3]

The vegetation of the Nicobars is typically divided into the coastal mangrove forests and the interior evergreen and deciduous tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests. Additionally, several islands contain extensive inland grasslands, though these are thought to have resulted from human intervention.^[3]

As a result of lower sea levels during the ice ages, the Andaman Islands were linked to the Southeast Asian mainland, but it is not believed that the Nicobar Islands ever had a land bridge to the continent. Lower sea levels did link the islands to one another: Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar were linked to each other, and Nancowry, Chaura, Katchall, Trinka, Camorta, and the nearby smaller islands were linked to one another as well.

Prehistory

Nicobarese people, c. 1870

The Nicobar Islands are believed to have been inhabited for thousands of years. Six indigenous Nicobarese languages are spoken on the islands, which are part of the Austroasiatic language family, which includes Mon, Khmer and Vietnamese languages of Southeast Asia, and the Munda languages of India. An indigenous tribe living at the southern tip of Great Nicobar, called the Shompen, may be of Mesolithic South-east Asian origin.^[8]

Origin of the name

The earliest extant references to the name "Nicobar" is in the Sri Lankan Pali Buddhist chronicles, the Dipavamsa (c. 3rd or 4th century CE) and the Mahavamsa (c. 4th or 5th century), which state that the children of the followers of the legendary founder of the Sri Lankan Kingdom, Vijaya, landed on Naggadipa (the island of the children, from the Pali nagga meaning 'naked').^[9] In the ninth century, the Persian explorer Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī referred to the Nicobar Islands as Lanjabālūs. ^[10] The modern name is likely derived from the Chola dynasty name for the islands, Nakkavaram (may be referring to open/naked land or naked mans land in Tamil) which is inscribed on the Thanjavur (Tanjore) inscription of 1050 CE.^[11][12][13] Marco Polo (12th-13th century) also referred to this island as 'Necuverann'.

In the 15th century, Great Nicobar Island was recorded as "Cui Lan island" (翠蘭嶼) during the voyages of Zheng He in the Mao Kun map of the Wu Bei Zhi.^[14]

Colonial period

Organised European colonisation on the islands began with the Danish East India Company in 1754/56. During this time they were administered from Tranquebar (in continental Danish India) under the name of Frederiksøerne. Missionaries from the Moravian Church Brethren's settlement in Tranquebar attempted a settlement on Nancowry and died in great numbers from disease. The islands were repeatedly abandoned due to outbreaks of malaria: 1784–1807/09, 1830–1834 and finally from 1848 gradually for good. Between 1778 and 1783, William Bolts attempted to establish an Austrian colony on the islands on the mistaken assumption that Denmark–Norway had abandoned its claims to the islands.^[15]

Italy attempted to buy the Nicobar Islands from Denmark between 1864 and 1865. The Italian Minister of Agriculture and Commerce Luigi Torelli started a negotiation that looked promising, but failed due to the unexpected end of his office and the second La Marmora Cabinet. The negotiations were interrupted and never brought up again.^[16]

Denmark's presence in the islands ended formally on 16 October 1868 when it sold the rights to the Nicobar Islands to the UK,^[15] which, in 1869, made them part of British India.

Second World War

During the Second World War, the islands were invaded and occupied by Japan between 1942 and 1945. In May 1945, HMS Ceylon shelled Japanese positions on the islands. The British regained possession of the islands after the Surrender of Japan, announced on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945.

Indian state

Together with the Andaman Islands, it became part of India in 1950 and was declared as a union territory of the nation in 1956.^[17]

26 December 2004 tsunami

On 26 December 2004, the coast of the Nicobar Islands was devastated by a 10-to-15-metre-high (33 to 49 ft) tsunami following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. At least 6,000 people were killed on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with reports putting the death toll on Katchal Island alone at 4,600.

Several islands were heavily damaged with initial reports of islands broken in two or three pieces and coral reefs moved above water. Teressa Island was said to have been split into two pieces and Trinkat Island into three pieces. Some estimates said that the islands were moved as much as 30 metres (100 ft) by the earthquake and tilted.

Indira Point subsided 4.25 metres (13.9 ft) and the lighthouse there was damaged.