UT BRIEF PROFILE A) UT POLITICAL MAP B) KEY STATISTICS a) Location Bay of Bengal N&M S/Andaman Nicobar Andaman (source: Basic statistics 2016-17 published by Directorate Economics & Statistics) i) Longitude 920 to 940 E ii) Latitude 120 to140 N 110 to 120 N 6 to 100 N b) Altitude i) Saddle Peak (North Andaman Island) 732 metres ii) Mount Thullier (Great Nicobar Island) 642 metres iii) Mount Harriet 365 metres c) Length and Breadth of Andaman Group of Islands i) Total length (in Km.) 467 ii) Maximum Width (in Km.) 52 iii) Average Width (in Km.) 24 d) Length and Breadth of Nicobar Group of Islands i) Total Length (in Km.) 259 ii) Maximum Width (in Km.) 58 e) Islands/Villages i) Revenue villages 204 ii) Census Villages 555 (source: Basic statistics 2016-17 1) Inhabited Villages 159 published by Directorate Economics 2) Uninhabited villages 396 & Statistics) iii) Total Islands/Islets (approx.) 836 Inhabited Islands 31 f) i) Largest inhabited islands in Andaman Group Middle Andaman Island (Area 1536 in Sq.Km.) i) Largest inhabited island in Nicobar Group Great Nicobar Island (Area in Sq.Km.) 1045 ii) Smallest inhabited island in Andaman Group Curlew Island (Area in Sq.Km.) 0.03 iii) Smallest inhabited island in Nicobar Group Pillomillow Island (Area in Sq.Km.) 1.295 g) Distance by Sea (in Km.) 1. Port Blair to Kolkata 1255 2. Port Blair to Chennai 1190 3. Port Blair to Vizag 1200 h) Distance by Air (in Km.) 1. Port Blair to Kolkata 1303 2. Port Blair to Chennai 1330 3. Port Blair to New Delhi 2476.48 i) Area of A & N Islands (in Sq.Km) Total Area( 2013) 8249 1. South Andaman District 3106 2. Nicobar District 1841 3. North & Middle Andaman District 3302 j) Tehsil wise area. (in Sq.Km) i) Diglipur 884 ii) Mayabunder 1348 iii) Rangat 1070 iv) Ferrargunj 1085 v) Port Blair 2021 vi) Little Andaman 732 vii) Car Nicobar 129 viii) Nancowry 1712 ix) Campbell bay 1045 k) Total electors in State 294435 i) Male electors 154829 ii) Female electors 139595 iii) OTG 11 l) Total State Population in No.(Projected up to the year of current revision) i.e. 2019 407492 m) State Population of 18+ only (Projected up to the year of current revision) i.e. 2019 313646 n) Sex ratio – (as per final roll) 876 o) EP ratio – (as per final roll) 723 p) No. of Parliamentary Constituencies (PC) 01 i) No. of Polling Stations (PS) 406 ii) No. of polling station locations 348 iii) No. of Assembly constituencies (ac) Nil iv) No. of Returning Officers (RO) 01 v) No. of District election Officer 03 vi) No. of AROs 08 vii) No. of Sector Officers (SO) 89 viii) No. of BLOs 406 C) PROFILE The Andaman and Nicobar Islands houses two distinct groups of islands, viz. Andaman and Nicobar. These two groups of islands have been divided into three districts, namely South Andaman, North & Middle Andaman and Nicobar District. The Andaman and Nicobar consist of about 836 islands, including islets and rocks in the archipelago, out of which only 31 islands are inhabited. The basic details of the three districts are as follows: District Headquarters Population (2011) Area (km²) Density (/km²) Nicobar Car Nicobar 36,819 1,841 20 North and Middle Andaman Mayabunder 105,539 3,227 32 South Andaman Port Blair 237,586 3,181 80 On 1st August 1974, Nicobar district was separated from Andaman district. On 18th August 2006, Andaman district was again bifurcated into two districts: North and Middle Andaman district and South Andaman district. The UT has only one Parliamentary constituency with no assembly constituency. The Andaman and Nicobar islands are situated in one of the most geologically fragile region of the world which sees frequent seismic activities of varying magnitudes. Besides this, other natural hazards such as cyclones and heavy rains also pose challenge to already existing challenges of geographical and data connectivity. C-1) Administrative set up S.No Name of District Sub-Division Tehsil 1. South Andaman South Andaman Port Blair Ferragunj Little Andaman 2. North & Middle Andaman North Andaman Diglipur Middle Andaman Mayabunder Rangat 3. Nicobar Car Nicobar Car Nicobar Nancowry Nancowry Campbell Bay Campbell Bay Statutory Towns 01 (One) Port Blair Census Towns 02 (Two) Bambooflat, Garacharma Parliamentary Constituency 01 (One) Municipal Wards 24 Gram Panchayats 70 Panchayat Samitis 07 Zilla Parishads 02 Tribal Councils 07 Tribal Village Councils 53 Police Stations 21 C-2) Demography The total population of the Territory as per Census 2011, was accounting for only 0.03% of the total population of India. The decennial growth rate recorded during 2011 Census was 6.86%. The population comprises mostly of people brought here during the British regime, families settled under various schemes of the government from time to time mostly from erstwhile East Pakistan, and a few families from other states and ex-servicemen settlers in Great Nicobar. Some persons have also emigrated here voluntarily, after Independence. The entire population has integrated in a cohesive manner with Hindi as the link language with little or no barriers of caste, creed or religion. There are also six Scheduled Tribes, namely the Great Andamanses, Onges, Jarawas, Sentineles, Nicobarese and Shompens. The first four are primitive (aboriginal) tribes of Negrito stock and are found only in the Andaman group of Islands out of which the Sentinelese do not have any contact with the outside world. There is a limited contact with the Onge and Jarawa tribes. The remaining two tribes viz, Nicobarese and Shompens reside in the Nicobar District and are of Mongoloid stock. There is one settlement of Nicobarese in Little Andaman under South Andaman District too, namely, Harminder Bay. The tribal population constitutes only 8.27% of the total population Particular Population Census (2011) Total population - 3,80,581 Male - 2,02,871 Female - 1,77,710 Rural Population - 2,37,093 Urban Population - 1,43,488 Schedules Tribe Population - 28,530 Male - 14, 731 Female - 13,799 Literate Population - 86.63% Languages spoken (mainly) - Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Nicobarese, Tribal Languages etc. C-3) Terrain Geologically the islands appear to have been part of the land mass of South East Asia comprising North East India, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The dreaded 10o channel which is about 145 km wide and 400 fathoms deep, separates the two groups Andaman and Nicobar. The Andaman group comprises of islands such as North Andaman, Middle Andaman, South Andaman, Baratang, Little Andaman in the Andaman group and Nicobar district comprises of Car Nicobar, Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar islands. Situated in the Bay of Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar islands constitute one of the most strategically important union territories. The terrain in the Andaman group of islands is generally mountainous with long ranges of hills enclosing narrow valleys. The configuration of the land clearly points to these islands being the visible ridges and summits of sunken ranges of mountains; Saddle Peak in North Andaman at a height of 732 metres above sea level is the highest point in these islands. They are susceptible to heavy soil erosion. Flat lands are comparatively scarce. The villages in Betapur and Diglipur constitute the main flat lands in the Andaman group. The islands in the Nicobar group are surrounded by coral reef and shallow seas. Long narrow stretches of sandy beaches are a salient feature of the topography here. Car Nicobar and Katchal are almost flat while the others have hilly terrain. In Little Nicobar and Great Nicobar in the Nicobar group, the land surface is very irregular, cut up by steep hills and valleys. C-4) Socio Economic and Cultural peculiarities relevant for Election Management point of view Cultural activities: Andaman and Nicobar milieu shows a mix of the indigenous cultures of the Negroid and the Mongoloid settlers of the island, as well as a more mainstream culture brought down by the descendants of the early settlers in the island from the Indian mainland. The migrants also contributed to the culture of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The greatest feature of Andaman and Nicobar Islands culture is the peaceful coexistence of these two strains of cultural lives. While, the settlers in the island from the Indian mainland and the Nicobarese have enormous presence in the electoral rolls, repeated and persistent efforts resulted in bringing about 29 Andamanese 54 Onges and 114 Shompens in the electoral rolls of 26-ANIPC. C-5) Connectivity: Inter-island connectivity mainly depends on roads as far as North & Middle Andaman is concerned. However, this journey involves a stretch of Tribal area where the transportation is monitored by way of convoy system and therefore, is not accessible at all times of the day and this zone is categorized as buffer zone of the Prevention of Aborigines Regulation. 1956 and Rules 1957. Secondly, the North & Middle Andaman is also connected by sea. The journey to the northern most Tehsil, Diglipur would take about 12- 14 hours from Port Blair. However, the connectivity to the Little Andaman islands under South Andaman district and Nicobar group of Islands is solely through sea. Needles to mention that sea journey are essentially dependent on weather prevailing at the time of journey. In case of adverse weather condition, the sailings are often cancelled until a favourable weather arrives. Moreover, in the recent past cyclone viz. GAJA and PABUK stroke this UT in November 2018 and January 2019. Although all the Tehsil headquarters are connected by air, movement of Polling Parties being massive, journey of Polling Personnel by air is almost impossible considering the time factor and the cost involved.