Rutland Island is an island of the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between the ...

. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

, part of the Indian union territory of

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated fr ...

. The island is located south from

Port Blair Port Blair () is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South And ...

History

The island used to be home to the Jangil, one of the indigenous Andamanese groups. The Jangil (also called "Rutland Jarawa" since they were thought to have been related to the Jarawa of South Andaman) occupied much of the interior of the island according to mid-19th century

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

accounts; however, their interactions with outsiders were few and far between. Up to the early 20th century there are only a handful of documented encounters with Jangil individuals. The last documented encounter was in 1907, and when in the 1920s a more extensive expedition to the island's interior was conducted, no traces of their active habitation were found; the Jangil had become extinct. From time to time other indigenous Andamanese, such as the

Onge The Onge (also Önge, Ongee, and Öñge) are an Andamanese ethnic group, indigenous to the Andaman Islands in Southeast Asia at the Bay of Bengal, currently administered by India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers and fishers, but als ...

from Little Andaman Island to the south and Great Andamanese tribes to the north had also set up fishing communities on Rutland. However, with the great reduction in numbers of these peoples, and their (enforced) relocation to more restricted areas, the island no longer has any permanent indigenous settlement. There is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark ...

at the slopes of the hill on the north of the island, about 2 km from the landing point.

Geography

The island belongs to the

Rutland Archipelago Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest l ...

and is located across the Macpherson Strait from South Andaman Island. It is separated from Little Andaman by the Duncan Passage, and from North Clinque Island by Manner Strait. Mount Ford, 433m high, lies in the N part of the island; Mount Mayo, 227m high, lies in the S part.

Administration

Politically, Rutland Island, along neighboring

, are part of

Taluk 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 administ ...

Demographics

There are 6 villages on the island: Rutland village,Geolysis (2012
Rutland
Unknown census. Accessed on 2012-07-16. R.M.Point village,Geolysis (2012
R M Point
Unknown census. Accessed on 2012-07-16. Bamboo Nallaha,Geolysis (2012
Bamboo Nallaha incl Kichad Nalla
Unknown census. Accessed on 2012-07-16. Kichad Nallaha, Bada KhariGeolysis (2012
Bada Khari
Unknown census. Accessed on 2012-07-16. and east jetty (Dani Nallah). According to the

2011 census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, the Island has 119 households, with 347 inhabitants, speaking Hindi,

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, Tamil.Government of India (2008),
Rutland Island
' In Island Wise Statistical Outline, Accessed on 2012-07-16. The effective literacy rate (i.e. the literacy rate of population excluding children aged 6 and below) is 64%. The island has 53 hectares of cultivated land, 237

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

heads, 157 goats.

Flora and fauna

Rutland Island is rich in marine life with the shallow waters near the island having a good representation of smaller fish and coral. The vegetation of Rutland Island is similar to that of

North Sentinel Island North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island. It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous people in voluntary isolation who have defended, often by ...

with dry sandy soils. Although hilly, the island is overgrown with fairly open jungle and brush.

Tourism

Rutland Island offers an ideal base for training open water divers. Prominent tourist spots on the island include Jahaji Beach, Bada Balu, Manner Strait, Photo Nallah and Dani Nallah.

Rutland Water Project

As of 2012, the Andaman Public Works Department was planning to bring water from Rutland Island to

by underwater pipeline across Mac Pherson Strait, from R. M. Point to Phongibalu in South Andaman. The pipeline would be about 1.2 km long; the maximum depth of the strait at the planned location is 55 m. The pipeline was estimated to cost about 140 million

rupee Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, ...

s.Kriti De (2012),
Rutland Water Project - APWD bats on ‘BOOT’ pitch
'. Accessed on 2012-07-16.

Image gallery

File:Rutland I locale.png, Outline map of the

, with the location of Rutland Island highlighted.

References

* *
Andaman Association on the Jangil
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rutland Island Islands of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands