|  Life at Andaman and Nicobar Islands | | There are many misconceptions about the type of Human race (s) residing in this Islands. Thanks to the private TV Channels on the air who repeatedly broadcast nice documentaries on the Aboriginal tribes of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, which only have added to the confusion among fellow Human beings who are residing elsewhere in the world. Such documentaries have led to a picture of residents of Andaman & Nicobar that they are someone who love to be nude; they are dark; they are man-eaters; its difficult to communicate with them and so on....
If you too is carrying such belief in your mind then probably you are ignorant about us. The present website you are browsing is designed and maintained at Port Blair itself, what best example can we quote that we are not Hannibal (s) !!. |
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|  Who live here in this Island and why ?:
History : Most of the Convicts / freedom fighters who were sent to this 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. They decided to stay here in Andamans as the Govt. provided land to such persons. A sizable population of Govt. servants & small traders arrived to the Islands to support the life at Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Later after 1960 AD refugees living at various refugee camps in West Bengal, TamilNadu and Kerala were encouraged to come to these Islands, where the Indian Government readily provided free of cost land for dwelling and farming. The tribal population was living elsewhere in the Islands away from the normal dwellings. The Indian government recognizing this place as a strategic defense position kept strengthening the Military, Navy, Air force and Coast Guard establishments.
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| Present Life :
The population according to 2001 census is 3,56,265 (including all the islands). As the early torch-bearers of the population at Andaman & Nicobar were freedom fighters - various social evil practices like division based on caste, religion, creed, language, region etc. is totally out of question. This fact makes this place rightly to be described as the "real and Mini-India". The language for communication among the masses is Hindi. Other languages / mother tongues are confined to the homes. Major Languages spoken are Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam and English. There is only 1 Lok Sabha (MP) Seat for the whole Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
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| 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.
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| Education :
The literacy rate is around 75%. There are 200 primary schools, 25 Pre-Primary schools, 56 Middle schools, and 88 higher secondary schools. All schools follow the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) pattern of education and there is no other local state board. 1 Industrial Training Institute (ITI) , 1 Teachers’ Training Institute (TTI), 2 Polytechnic institutes, 2 Govt. Colleges, and 1 Govt. B.Ed. College supplement the need of higher education to some extent.
Apart from these institutes there are no other professional and academic colleges. The meritorious students from the Islands seek higher education at Indian mainland ( at various states ) for which Indian Government has made appropriate reservations at various colleges around the country (around 250 seats of various faculties). The students get admission in the colleges as GOI (Government of India nominees). Such nomination scheme is also seen at North-eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir.
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| Health Services : There are 3 Tertiary Hospitals, 4 Community Health Centres, 18 Primary Health Centres , 5 Urban Health Centres, 102 Primary Health Sub Centres and 8 Dispensaries. There are 122 Doctors in the government sector alone.
Though super specialty facilities of Neurology, Cardiology, Urology, Gastroenterology etc is not available at Andaman & Nicobar Islands expert guidance regarding such cases are sought from Apollo Hospital & Ramchandra Medical College at Chennai through a revolutionary system of Telemedicine at GB Pant Hospital. The telemedicine network is established under the guidance of ISRO , which uses INSAT 3B directly to connect the 3 hospitals (GB Pant at Port Blair & Apollo & Ramchandra at Chennai). The super specialty cases are referred to notified Hospitals at Chennai and Kolkata.
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| The extent of industrialization is evidenced from the fact that this islands only have 5 Large/Medium Scale Industry !. Only 200 buses road, The number of fair price shops in the Island is 430 (all govt., Co-operative and private sectors).
Municipal Council 1, Municipal Ward 18, Panchayat 67, Police Station 15, Panchayat Samiti 07, Zilla Parishad
1. , Villages 504, 74955 Urban population in 2001 |
ritesh mandal
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