LIFE AT THE ISLAND

Life at Andaman and Nicobar Islands

There are many misconceptions about the type of Human race (s) residing in this Islands. Thanks to the TV Channels and other national media who had repeatedly broadcast nice documentaries on the Aboriginal tribes of Andaman & Nicobar Islands in past. Those commentaries collectively contributed to the confusion among fellow human beings residing elsewhere in the world. Few people even think that since Andaman is part of India it should be possible to travel to this place by Train!

Who live in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Most of the convicts / freedom fighters who were sent from Mainland India to these Islands during the British era never returned back to their home. Probably because no home actually was left for them back in the Indian mainland. The Govt. ( British) from 1926 onwards started providing land to 'The Convicts' and this policy helped in the colonisation of this Islands. A sizeable population of Govt. servants & small traders arrived to the Islands to support the life at Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Government job is still much coveted in these Islands and there are about 37,000 of them in these Islands. Later during 1953 AD refugees living at various refugee camps in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh were encouraged to come to these Islands, where the Indian Government readily provided free of cost land for dwelling and farming. The settlement costed the GOI (Govt. of India) around INR 2000 for each family those days. More detailed information is available in our Settlers Information section.

The tribal populationwas living elsewhere in the Islands away from the normal dwellings ever since British occupied Andaman Islands.

The Indian government recognizing this place as a strategic defence position kept strengthening the Military, Navy, Air force and Coast Guard establishments. A sizeable ex-servicemen families were also allotted land in this Islands.

Health Services at Andaman and Nicobar Islands

There are 3 Secondary care Hospital, 4 Community Health Centres, 21 Primary Health Centres , 5 Urban Health Centres, 102 Primary Health Sub Centres and 8 Dispensaries. There are 285 Doctors in the government sector. Super specialty facilities like Neurology, Urology, Gastroenterology etc is negligible (or non existent) at Andaman & Nicobar Islands. There is a set up of telemedicine at GB Pant Hospital which is intended to seek expert guidance and continued medical education from Apollo Hospital & Ramachandra Medical College at Chennai. The telemedicine network is established under the guidance of ISRO, which uses INSAT 3B directly to connect the hospitals. In practice these tele-medicine network have by far proved to be less worthy than the hype it has maintained.
The super specialty cases are referred to notified Hospitals at Chennai and Kolkata.

Cultivation

The only staple crop cultivated at islands is paddy. Gross Area under Paddy is ~ 11000 hectares, The cultivation area is decreasing gradually as the total area under paddy cultivation was around 12000 hectares in 1990. The production of rice is only around 20,000 metric tonnes.

The extent of industrialization is evidenced from the fact that this islands only have 5 Large/Medium Scale Industry !.

The number of fair price shops in the Island is 460 (all Government, Co-operative and private sectors).


Municipal Council 1, Municipal Ward 18 and 67 Panchayats