In the 15th century, Great Nicobar Island was recorded as "Cui Lan island" during the voyages of Zheng He in the Mao Kun map of the Wu Bei Zhi. Great Nicobar island was severely affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquaketsunami with many deaths, and was cut off from all outside contact for more than a day.
Geography
The island of Sumatra is located to the south of Great Nicobar. The island covers but is sparsely inhabited, with a population of 8067, largely being covered by rainforest and known for its diverse wildlife.
The island has several rivers, including the Alexandra, Amrit Kaur, Dogmar and Galathea. Virtually all rivers flow in a southern or southwesterly direction, which is indicative of the general slope of the terrain across the island. There are undulating hills throughout the island, with the main range running in a north-south orientation. Mount Thullier, which is part of this range, has the highest elevation of any point in the Nicobars, at 642 m above sea level. Indira Point is the southernmost point of the Great Nicobar Island and India itself. Indira Point subsided 4.25 m in the 26 December 2004 tsunami and the lighthouse there was damaged. The lighthouse was subsequently made functional.
There is a 915m airstrip at Campbell Bay/Tenlaa on the East coast.
Seaport: At least one small shipping dock is located in Campbell Bay.
Indira Point
is the name of the southernmost point of Republic of India. It is situated on Great Nicobar Island in the Nicobar Islands, which are located in the eastern Indian Ocean at 6°45’10″N and 93°49’36″E. This is not on the Indian mainland, but within the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The name of the point was changed from Pygmalion Point on 18 October 1985 in commemoration of Indira Gandhi. It was formerly known by various names that include Pygmalion Point, Parsons Point, and for a brief period India Point. It is located 540 km and more than a day's sea voyage from Port Blair, the capital city and main port of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is approximately 163 km by sea from Sumatra, Indonesia. Rondo Island, Indonesia's northernmost island in Sabang district of Aceh province of Sumatra, lies south of Indira point. India and Indonesia are planning to collaborate to construct a port at Sabang to protect the channel between Great Nicobar Island and Rondo Island.
Indira Point lighthouse
Indira Point has a 35 m high cast iron lighthouse with 16 nautical miles range. The lighthouse has with a 300 mm 4 panel revolving light inside a 2.5 m diameter lantern house. It is an important landmark on the international shipping lane Colombo-Singapore route via Malacca Strait that passes south of Indira Point. It also has a helipad.
2004 tsunami
The tsunami which resulted from the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 inundated much of the area. This partly damaged the lighthouse, which subsided 4.25 m. As a result of this subsidence, the coast retreated and the sea moved permanently inland. The lighthouse has since been repaired. The base of the lighthouse was 5 m above sea level when constructed in 1972. After the tsunami, the sea rose and the base was less than a metre above the sea level, showing over 4 meters of sea floor subsidence. It has been observed that the sea is slowly retreating back to its original position and the subsidence has decreased as the ocean floor slowly bounces back partially, a similar drop and rise due to crustal decompression and re compression was observed in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on Honshu. Indira point was mostly submerged.
