Endemic Fauna of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Bay of Bengal

Endemic Fauna of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bay of Bengal
D.V. Rao, Kailash Chandra 1 and Kamla Devi 2
Zoological Survey of India, Hyderabad
1 Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata
2 Zoological Survey of India, Port Blair
Introduction
The Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago situated between 6 0 45’ N and 30 0 30’ N lat. and 90 0 20’
E and 93 0 56’ E long. in the Bay of Bengal spread over a linear distance of over 550 km. comprises of
over 350 islands, islets and rock outcrops including two out lying volcanic islands - Barren and
Narcondam, are the summits of submarine mountain range that extends from the Eastern Himalaya
along Arakan Yoma of lower Myanmar in the north to Sumatra and lesser Sundas in the south. The
total land area of the islands is about 8,293 sq km with a coastline of 1,962 km. Even though the Bay
islands are oceanic, the northern end of the chain, the North Andaman, is close to the Cape Negaris of
Myanmar coast, about 300 km away and the southern end, the Nicobars, close to the Achin Head of
Western Sumatra is about 100 km away. There are several deep and wide water channels isolated the
island masses from each other. These islands are adorned with vast marine, forest and mangrove
ecosystems. Out of the total land area, about 90% is covered with monsoon forests and tropical rain
forests known to be significant global hotspots for biodiversity. All the islands support a luxuriant
growth of Giant Evergreen Forests, Andaman Tropical Evergreen Forests, Southern Hilltop Evergreen
Forests, Andaman Semi-evergreen Forests, Andaman Moist Deciduous Forests, Littoral Forests, Tidal
Swamp (Mangrove) Forests and Cane and Bamboo Brakes. Different habitats of these small islands
are harbouring thousands of plant and animal species. More than a quarter of the terrestrial fauna
and flora are endemic, while the reminder represents a fascinating mixture of taxa from Indo-China,
Indo-Malaya and even sub-continental India. These islands are also home to four of the last aboriginal
tribes of humans. Over 8,300 species of animals inhabiting terrestrial and marine environment have
been recorded from the islands including large number of endemics. Assessment of endemic species
and their distributional pattern in the islands provide key information for determining the areas of
conservation prioty. The islands virtually become the hotspots for speciation due to long period of
isolation from main land mases resultd in several hundreds of endemics at species and subspecies
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