Foreword
This report is based on surveys conducted by a team from our Zonal Office, Calcutta in some of the inhabited islands in District Nicobar and in the island of Little Andaman. The findings of the team confirm and raise several issues. The islands being 'restricted areas' have still maintained the naturalness and vestige of tropical forests with a rich repository of bio- diversity. The transport component on these islands is insignificant. There is a Palm Oil extraction unit at Little Andaman and a Rubber Extraction unit on Katchal Island and both of them operate on a b~tch run basis, the units being seasonal in nature. Similar to the islands in District Andaman, the power generation units in the Nicobar islands also are run with diesel as the fuel. The islands experience profuse rainfall thereby making the groundwater as major water source. Perennial streams are few except at Katchal and Great Nicobar .