Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve
Encyclopedia
Great Nicobar
Great Nicobar is the largest of the Nicobar Islands of India, north of Sumatra. Indira Point, its southernmost tip, is also the southernmost point of India. The island of Sumatra is located to the south of Great Nicobar...
, the largest of the Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Union Territory
Union Territory
A Union Territory is a sub-national administrative division of India, in the federal framework of governance. Unlike the states of India, which have their own elected governments, union territories are ruled directly by the federal government; the President of India appoints an Administrator or...
of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Nicobars lie in the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...
, eastern Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, 190 km to the north of the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n island of Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
. The Reserve has a total core area of approximately 885 km², surrounded by a 12km-wide "forest buffer zone".
Geography
The Reserve was declared in January 1989. It incorporates two National parks of IndiaNational parks of India
This is a list of all national parks of India. India's first national park was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park, now known as Jim Corbett National Park. By 1970, India only had five national parks...
, which were gazetted in 1992: the larger Campbell Bay National Park
Campbell Bay National Park
Campbell Bay National Park is a national park in India, located on the island of Great Nicobar, the largest of the Nicobar Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean some 190 km to the north of Sumatra...
on the northern part of the island, and Galathea National Park
Galathea National Park
Galathea National Park is a National Park located in the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located on the island of Great Nicobar in the Nicobar Islands, which lie in the eastern Indian Ocean ....
in the southern interior. The non-Biosphere
Biosphere
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...
portions of the island (set aside for agriculture, forestry and settlements) are confined to the southwestern and southeastern coastal reaches.
The environment is classified by the World Wide Fund for Nature
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...
as Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests , also known as tropical moist forests, are a tropical and subtropical forest biome....
biome
Biome
Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...
, and located in the Indomalaya
Indomalaya
The Indomalaya ecozone is one of the eight ecozones that cover the planet's land surface. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia....
ecozone
Ecozone
An ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of the Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms.Ecozones delineate large areas of the Earth's surface within which organisms have been evolving in relative isolation over long periods of time, separated from...
.
Flora and fauna
The reserve is home to many speciesSpecies
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of plants and animals, often endemic
Endemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
to the Andaman and Nicobars biogeographic region. Species of fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
in the reserve include: Nicobar scrubfowl
Nicobar Scrubfowl
The Nicobar Megapode or Nicobar Scrubfowl is a megapode found in some of the Nicobar Islands . Like other megapodes relatives, it builds a large mound nest with soil and vegetation, with the eggs hatched by the heat produced by decomposition...
(Megapodius nicobariensis, a megapode bird), the Edible-nest Swiftlet
Edible-nest Swiftlet
The Edible-nest Swiftlet is a small bird of the swift family which is found in South-east Asia. Its nest is made of solidified saliva and is used to make bird's nest soup.-Description:...
(Aerodramus fuciphagus), the Nicobar Long-tailed Macaque
Nicobar Long-tailed Macaque
The Nicobar long-tailed macaque is a subspecies of the crab-eating macaque , endemic to the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal...
(Macaca fascicularis umbrosa), saltwater crocodile
Saltwater Crocodile
The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles...
(Crocodylus porosus), giant Leatherback Sea Turtle
Leatherback Sea Turtle
The leatherback sea turtle is the largest of all living sea turtles and the fourth largest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell. Instead, its...
(Dermochelys coriacea), Malayan box turtle, Nicobar tree shrew, reticulated python
Reticulated Python
Python reticulatus, also known as the reticulated python is a species of python found in Southeast Asia. Adults can grow to over 8.7 m in length but normally grow to an average of 3-6 m . They are the world's longest snakes and longest reptile, but are not the most heavily built...
(Python reticulatus) and the giant robber crab
Coconut crab
The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is a species of terrestrial hermit crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper size limit of terrestrial animals with exoskeletons in today's atmosphere at a weight of up to...
(or coconut crab, Birgus latro).
Indigenous inhabitants
The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve also incorporates territories and traditional lands of the indigenousIndigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
Nicobarese and Shompen
Shompen
The Shompen or Shom Pen are the indigenous people of the interior of Great Nicobar Island, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.- Etymology and autonym :...
peoples.
See also
- Endemic birds of the Andaman and Nicobar IslandsEndemic birds of the Andaman and Nicobar IslandsThis article is one of a series providing information about endemism among birds in the World's various zoogeographic zones. For an overview of this subject see Endemism in birds.-Endemic Bird Areas:...
, India - Fauna of India
- Flora of IndiaFlora of IndiaThe Flora of India is one of the richest of the world due to a wide range of climate, topology and environments in the country. It is thought there are over 15000 species of flowering plants in India,which account for 6 percent of the total plant species in the world. and probably many more species...
- Wildlife of IndiaWildlife of IndiaThe wildlife of India is a mix of species of number of different types of organism. The region's rich and diverse wildlife is preserved in 89 national parks, 13 Bio reserves and 400+ wildlife sanctuaries across the country. Since India is home to a number of rare and threatened animal species,...