Chetlat Island is a

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

island belonging to the Amindivi Subgroup of islands of the

Lakshadweep Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast. The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lac ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arch ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It has a distance of west of the city of

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

History

Local history says that islanders were cruelly treated by Portuguese seafarers in the past. Coir twisting was the traditional occupation of the inhabitants and average Chetlat coir used to be equal to first-class coir of the other islands in Lakshadweep.

Geography

Chetlat is one of the populated islands of Lakshadweep. It is located 37 km to the northwest of Kiltan Island. The reef and lagoon are located to the west of the island and the total dry land area is . There is a small scale yearly growing sand spit on the northern point of the island. It has a

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons ...

area of .

Administration

Chetlat is the sole inhabited island of the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

of Chetlat Island of Aminidivi

Tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its adminis ...

Economics

The inhabitants on the island are engaged in very small scale farming and fishing which are mainly for the island consumption.

Transportation

The island has a small jetty on the west coast and a helipad on southpoint.

Image gallery

File:Lakshadweep.jpg, Satellite picture showing the atolls of the Lakshadweep except for

Minicoy Minicoy, locally known as Maliku (), is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Along with Viringili, it is on ''Maliku atoll'', the southernmost atoll of Lakshadweep archipelago. Administratively, it is a census town in the Indian union territory o ...

File:Map of Lakshadweep-en.svg, Map

References

External links

*
Lagoon sizes
*
List of AtollsAn ornithological expedition to the Lakshadweep archipelagoSources towards a history of the Laccadive Islands
Islands of Lakshadweep Atolls of India Cities and towns in Lakshadweep district {{Lakshadweep-geo-stub