News Latest Information on Travelling to Andaman Islands?
  • Runway Status for Port Blair Airport From October,22 to February, 23

    Updated: 19 Sep 2022
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  • RT PCR report on arrival

    Updated: 14 Aug 2021
  • Andaman Tourism Opens

    Updated: 14 Aug 2021

    Andaman Tourism Opens: The Andaman & Nicobar administration has announced that all tourist spots in the South Andaman district will be opened for tourism activities with immediate effect 8 Feb 2022.

  • What is the advisory to travel to North & Middle Andaman District?

    Updated: 14 Aug 2021

    The tourists are allowed to visit Baratang/North & Middle Andaman on production of double dose covid certificate/ All other passengers viz. unvaccinated and partially vaccinated passengers (those who have taken only 1S1 dose of COVID vaccine) shall have to produce RT-PCR negative test report

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  • All asymptomatic fully vaccinated persons coming to these islands from mainland are exempted from the requirement of carrying RT-PCR negative test report,irrespective of the type of vaccine received and country of origin. Such fullyvaccinated individuals shall produce the final vaccination certificate at the origin airport, sea port in the mainland and at Port Blair Airport / sea port.
  • Alt asymptomatic children below 5 years of age are exempted from carrying RT-PCR negative test report and further RT-PCR testing at Port Blair Airport.
  • All other passengers viz. unvaccinated and partially vaccinated passengers (those who have taken only 1S1 dose of COVID vaccine) shall have to produce RT-PCR negative test report to travel to Port Blair from the mainland, as is the practice now. Such an RT-PCR test should have been taken within 48 hours prior to commencement of journey from the origin airport connecting Port Blair. Such passengers will also have to undergo additional RT-PCR test on arrival at Port Blair. Such passengers shall remain in self-quarantine till the arrival of the test report.
  • If a passenger on arrival is tested positive then, the prescribed quarantine protocol is to be followed.
  • All Airlines shall ensure strict compliance of this order and observance of COVID Appropriate Behaviour. Any non-compliance shall invite action under Disaster Management Act and other applicable laws. 
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General Guidelines defined for traveling to Andaman Islands during COVID :

  1. The Tourism Activities are permitted only in South Andaman & North & Middle Andaman District except Nicobar District.
  2. Persons above 65 years of age, persons with home co-morbidities, pregnant women and children below the age of 10 years advised not to travel for tourism purposes.
  3. Tourists/Visitors who are at higher risk due to some medical history are advised to take extra precautions.
  4. Tourists/visitors shall minimize contact with other staff and visitors as far as possible and zero contact policy should be followed at all tourist destinations.
  5. All tourists/visitors shall be briefed by the hotel concerned about do’s & don’ts to be mandatorily followed during their stay and movements.
  6. While travelling tourists/visitors should wear a face mask and carry their own sanitizer and wet wipes for personal use.
  7. At all tourist destinations, staff must wear face masks and wash/sanitize hands regularly while performing their duties.
  8. Arogya Setu App shall be mandatory for all incoming tourists/visitors.
  9. Respiratory etiquettes to be strictly followed. This involves strict practice of covering one’s mouth and nose while coughing/sneezing with a tissue handkerchief/flexed elbow and disposing off used tissues properly after use.
  10. The tourists/visitors on arrival at Port Blair airport have to undergo mandatory Covid-19 screening with RTPCR test free of cost. Thereafter the tourists/ visitors are allowed to move to their respective hotels. However, they will have to be under quarantine at Port Blair in their hotel rooms until the result of RTPCR tests are received. In case of RTPCR positive test results, the tourists/visitors shall remain in institutional quarantine in hotels notified by the Hoteliers Association in consent with the A&%N Administration, on rate as specified or to the designated hospital/ Covid 19 care centre on case to case basis.
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What are the guidelines for testing for tourists coming to Andaman after August 03 2021?

On arrival at Port Blair :

1. The tourists need to carry COVID-19 negative test report from mainland based 1CMR approved lab using Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR). However, the sample for RTPCR test should have been taken within 48 hours prior to starting the journey from the origin station. (For e.g. if the tourist takes a flight from Delhi at 0600 hrs. on 1st September, 2021, the sample for RTPCR test should have been taken not before 0600 hrs. on 30th August, 2021).

2. The tourists/visitors on arrival at Port Blair airport have to undergo mandatory Covid-19 screening with RTPCR test free of cost. Thereafter the tourists/visitors are allowed to move to their respective hotels. However, they will have to be under quarantine at Port Blair in their hotel rooms until the result of RTPCR tests are received. In case of RTPCR positive test results, the tourists/visitors shall remain in
institutional quarantine in hotels notified by the Hoteliers Association in consent with the A&N Administration, on rates as specified or to the designated hospital/ Covid-19 care centre on case-to-case basis.

3. Tourists may also have to undergo random Rapid Antigen Test conducted from time to time on payment basis as prescribed by A8N Administration.

What if the tourists test positive after arriving at the Andaman Islands?


If the tourists tests positive during their stay in the Islands, he/she will need to undergo institutional isolation as per existing health protocols. The
cost of such isolation for govt. facility will be paid by the tourists as fixed by the administration from time to time.

If the patient wants to stay at hotels, he/she can stay in the hotels if all the conditions below are met:

a) Patients are not symptomatic and not more than 60 years old.
b) Request/ undertaking is made by patient in writing.
c)lf allowed by doctors.

Hotels will make necessary arrangements to designate a part of their rooms for institutional isolation for this purpose.

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  • Regular flights to Port Blair (the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands) are operational now.
  • There are direct flights from Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Delhi.
  • Public transports like cabs, taxis, and bus services are also functional.
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Travellers should carefully follow social distancing norms and wear masks as well. Also, before making any booking, they should refer to the latest travel news on the government website of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

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History of Andaman

The Andaman Islands are known for their captivating and pristine beaches, but the history of these islands is equally as fascinating. The history of Andamanese tribes dates back to the stone age, while some pieces of evidence have been dated back to 8th century BC. 

In all this time, the Andamans have been through a lot of cultural and linguistic shifts, which is why this place has turned into a tourist magnet. 

  •  History of Andaman

    The wondrous and diverse geomorphology of Andaman Islands

    The Andamans span nearly 360 km across, includes over 300 islands and only maybe 20 or so are populated. 
    There are three major Andaman Islands (North, Middle, and South) and are called the Great Andaman collectively. There is another noteworthy island called the Little Andaman located down south of the collective.
    One look at the Andaman Islands map would let anyone know that there are plateaus and hills sprinkled all around the archipelago. The saddle is the highest peak located on North Andaman Island. 
    These islands are rich in limestone and sandstone. Also, Barren Island has the only active volcano in South Asia.
    There are few rivers which can provide the population with fresh water (a frequent issue), although the place hails for some of the densest woodlands and largest mangrove forests. The place is truly a natural masterpiece and an ecological hotspot.

  • How Did The Name ‘Andaman’ Originate?

    How Did The Name ‘Andaman’ Originate?

    Sacred texts have depicted the archipelago formed by the Andaman Islands as Handuman. The Greek mathematician and explorer, Ptolemy, had mentioned the place as Agadaemon Angademan in his journals, in the 1st century. According to Marco Polo, the place was known as Angamanian by the 13th century.
    The general belief for the coinage of the name ‘Andaman’ lies in the Indian mythology and the name of the revered Hindu God Hanuman. Although, around the year 1440, Niccolo de Conti, an Italian explorer noted the term could mean ‘Island of Gold’.

    Fun fact:

    A manuscript called the ‘Book of Wonders (The Secrets of Natural History)’ was created in the 15th century Paris, which describes the Islands being populated with wolf-like humanoid creatures! This is how inaccessible the islands were at the time, so much so, that the history itself was distorted beyond belief.

  • Languages Lost To Time

    Languages Lost To Time

    The Andamans host some of the most ancient and untouched by civilization tribes, in the world. These tribes have survived through the tumultuous climates, natural disasters, and significant changes in the culture of the surrounding nations and territories.

    The Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese peopleare some of the tribes from the Andamans, that are of Negroid lineage. 

    These Andaman Islands people and tribes used to speak languages like Khora, Bo, Mohkhmer, and Shompen which are now extinct because the last surviving members that could speak these have perished, taking their old languages with them.

    The tribes in Andaman now speak Andamanese, Onge, Sentinelese,and Jarawa, which are more closely related then the previous ones, which were Austroasiatic in nature.

  • Andaman’s Dark Past – A History Drenched In Blood And Wars

    Andaman’s Dark Past – A History Drenched In Blood And Wars

    There is no way to determine when exactly the advent of civilization took place in the remote islands of Andaman. However, the indigenous tribes struggled a lot against the ‘invaders’ from the very beginning.

    Maratha Empire was the first to even list the Islands as a part of their territory, while the Chola Kings used the islands as their naval camp during their battle against the Sriwijaya Empire from Indonesia.

    The first attempts to colonize the islands, however, came from the Danish East India settlers. These colonizers made Nicobar (affectionately called as New Denmark by them) their camp in 1755 but couldn’t survive the outbreaks caused by Malaria and left by 1848.

  • Andaman’s Dark Past – A History Drenched In Blood And Wars

    Chatham Island was the first checkpoint for the British settlers back in 1857 under a committee headed by Dr. F. J. Mouat. But they had tried their luck to colonize Chatham previously from 1789 to 1796, although they were driven away by adverse climates. 

    They finally turned port Blair into a penal colony called ‘Kalapani’ or ‘Cellular Jail’ by 1896, although the place was being used for confining and condemning prisoners from 1857 onwards. Anyone that was convicted of a crime against the empire was sent for enduring a life sentence here. 

    The prisoners were also used for expanding the settlement which in turn angered the native Andaman Islands tribe, leading to the ‘Battle of Aberdeen’ in 1859 which badly decimated the tribal population.

  • Andaman’s Dark Past – A History Drenched In Blood And Wars

    The prisoners were finally released when the Britishers left the Andamans in 1938. Some of those prisoners chose to settle there on the island itself, while the others were moved to the mainland.

    Then came the Japanese armies, during World War II. They committed atrocious crimes against Indians until the islands were captured back by the Britishers in 1945. This era is seldom talked about as no complete recounts are available, but it is one of the darkest periods in Andaman’s history.

    After years of pain and struggle, Pandit Nehru finally acquired Andamans in place of two Manipur districts from Myanmar (then Burma). Andamans were then declared as a Union territory and these landmarks have now been turned into historical memorials. 

  • Historically significant places on the Andaman Islands

    Historically significant places on the Andaman Islands

    Cellular Jail in Port Blair – Symbol of the freedom struggle. It has housed famous freedom fighters such as Veer Savarkar. Only a few wings are opened to tourists and a light and dance show dramatizing the events in the past is organized for visitors as well in the jail compounds.

    Penal colony Ross Island – These ruins precede the establishment of Cellular jail and also contain the ruins of the gallows. However, the place is still very picturesque. 

  • Viper Island Jail

    Viper Island Jail – Named after the ship of Archibald Blair, it has two major sections: One is the prisoner gallows where the prisoners are hanged, and the other is the Courtroom building ruins.

    Government Sawmill at Chatham – It is the largest and oldest sawmill in Asia. Now the place is being maintained by the Forest Department. There is a bomb pit, which is a relic from the World War II era, and a personal museum of sorts for the ill where wood carvings are on display these days.

  • Japanese bunkers and British colonial ruins on Port Blair and Ross island

    Japanese bunkers and British colonial ruins on Port Blair and Ross island – Remnants from the WW II era and the atrocious past of the islands, these bunkers are often on display for visitors.

    Swaraj Island and Shaheed Dweep – In honour of the freedom fighters, Neil and Havelock Islandwere renamed into Shaheed dweep and Swaraj Island, respectively owing to their historical importance.

The Andaman Islands are truly a piece of heaven and could prove to be a learning opportunity for those that have the patience to visit all the places that these islands have to offer. This place attracts History buffs and avid travellers alike.

 

 

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