Andaman and Nicobar are two archipelagos comprising 572 islands/islets located in the Bay of Bengal, of which only 25 in Andaman and 12 in Nicobar are inhabited. Together they provide India a great strategic advantage over the Straits of Malacca — one of the most important ‘Sea Lane of Communication’ (SLOC) — critical to trade and movement of oil from the Gulf to the South China Sea, East China Sea and the Pacific. These islands also provide India with tremendous economic potential for tourism, fishery and deep-sea exploration for oil and gas. Nearly one-third of our Exclusive Economic Zone is derived from these islands. Besides boosting our Look East policy and our soft power on the Indo-Pacific region, these islands have given the Indian navy a salient role to play in containing China’s intransigence in the blue waters. It must be mentioned that of the 7,500-km coastline of India, nearly 2,000 km comes from this archipelagic chain.
Although the Andaman and Nicobar Islands…