The total geographic area of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is 0.82 million ha. The territory is a chain of more than 572 islands and islets situated in the south-eastern part of Bay of Bengal. It lies between lat. 6º45¢ and 13º 45¢ N and long. 92º00¢ and 94º18¢ E. The islands form two broad groups viz. the Andamans and the Nicobars of which Andamans account for 0.64 million ha and Nicobar 0.18 million ha. Coral reefs surround most of the islands of the Nicobar group. Land use pattern of the territory is given in Table 3.28.a.
 
 

The climate is humid tropical. The average annual rainfall varies from 1,400 mm to 3,000 mm and average annual temperature varies from 24º C to 28º C.
 
 

The total population is 0.28 million (1991 Census) of which 86% inhabit Andaman Islands and rest Nicobar Islands. Scheduled Tribes constitutes 9.54% of the total population. Four aboriginal tribes i.e. Andamanese, Jarwas, Onges and Sentenalese inhabit the Andaman groups Nicobaris and Shampens are in the Nicobar group. Total livestock population of the islands is 0.15 million (1992 livestock census).
 
 

Table 3.28.a : Land Use
 

Landuse	Area in ‘000 ha	Percentage
Total geographical area	825
Reporting area for land utilisation	793	100.00
Forests	695	87.47
Not available for cultivation	24	3.16
Permanent pasture and other grazing lands	4	0.63
Land under misc. tree crops & groves	16	1.77
Culturable wasteland	12	1.65
Fallow land other than current fallows	3	0.38
Current fallows	1	0.13
Net area sown	38	4.81

Source: Land use statistics At a Glance 1996-97, Ministry of Agriculture, GOI, 2000
 
 

3.28.2 Forest resources
 
 

The total recorded forest area of the islands is 0.72 million ha which constitutes 86.93% of the land area. The Reserved and Protected Forests constitute about 40% and 60% respectively.
 
 

There are four forest types viz. Tropical Wet Evergreen, Tropical Semi-evergreen, Tropical Moist Deciduous and Littoral & Swamp forests.
 
 

3.28.3 Protected Areas
 
 

There are 9 National Parks and 94 Wildlife sanctuaries covering an area of 0.15 million ha which is 18.53% of the land area. Major part of the Great Nicobar Island has been declared as a Biosphere Reserve.
 
 

3.28.4 Forests in villages
 
 

There are 504 villages, of which 153 have forest as a landuse. The forest area in these villages is 0.04 million ha The total population of these villages is 0.12 million. The villages having less than 100 ha, between 100-500 ha and more than 500 ha forest in each village constitute 46%, 43 % and 11% of the total villages respectively. Table 3.28.b provides details of villages by forest area and population.
 
 

Note : Information relates to Andaman only
 
 

3.28.5 Forest Plantations
 
 

Since the islands have very rich forest resource, forest plantations have remained a low key activity. Only limited plantations of famous timber spp., viz Padauk (Pterocarpus dalbergioides), a native specie and teak (Tectona grandis) was done in pre-independence era.
 
 

Regular plantation of teak was started in 1954 after clear felling patches of Moist Deciduous forests. In addition to Padauk, other native species such as Koko (Albizzia lebbek), Pyinma (Lagerstroemia hypoleuca), Badam (Terminalia procera) and matchwood species (Bombax insignis, Sterculia companulata) have been planted in a limited scale.
 
 

The pace of planting was drastically reduced since mid seventies because of giving up the practice of clear-felling and planting and resorting only to assisted natural regeneration in all areas. Planting activity has remained confined to roadside and in other vacant lands. Besides forest plantations, about 1600 ha of Red oil Palm and 600 ha of Rubber plantations have been established by Forest Development Corporation. These plantations are not being extended since 1985. The details of plan-wise and species-wise plantations are furnished in Table 3.28.c and 3.28.d respectively.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Table 3.28.c : Forest plantations by all agencies
 
 
 

Period	Area in ‘000 ha
1951-80	11.84
1980-85	17.04
1985-90	26.59
1990-91	3.32
1991-92	3.10
1992-97	19.34
1997-98	3.53
1998-99	3.39
Total	88.14

Source : NAEB, MoEF
 
 
 
 

Table 3.28.d : Species wise plantations by Forest Department upto 1998
 
 
 

Species	Area in 000 ha	Percentage
Tectona grandis	9.60	38.4
Others	15.40	61.6
Total	25.00	100.0

Source: Andaman & Nicobar Forest Department
 
 
 
 

3.28.6 Forest Cover
 
 

The forest cover based on satellite data of March 1997 and January-March 1998 is 7606 sq.km which is 92.21% of the geographic area. Dense forest, Open forest and Mangroves account for 6515 sq.km, 125 sq.km and 966 sq.km. respectively. Forest cover of the islands is shown in Fig.3.27. There has been a net decrease of 7 sq.km in the present assessment as compared to previous assessment. The difference between the data periods of the two assessment is about 4 years.
 
 

The change matrix, given in the Table 3.28.e, reveals that there has been an overall decrease of 5 sq. km. of dense forest. This is the result of degradation of 7 sq. km. of dense forest to non forest and improvement of 2 sq. km. of open forest to dense forest.
 
 

The decrease of 2 sq. km. of open forest is on account of improvement to dense forest. There has been no change in the area of mangrove.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Table 3.28.e : Forest cover change matrix

The total number of districts in the state is 2 . The extent of dense forest, open forest and mangrove, in both these districts, along with the change compared to 1997 assessment is provided in Table 3.28.f.
 
 
 
 

Table 3.28.f : District-wise forest cover

The decrease of forest cover in the Little Andamans, Diglipur and Havelock is because of encroachment by the settlers in the revenue land.