Context:
Amid recent reports of suspicious infrastructure upgrades at Myanmar’s Coco Islands, an MQ-9 drone leased by the Indian Navy was recently seen reconnoitring the nearby areas of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Relevance:
Places in News
Dimensions of the Article:
- About Coco Islands
- History
About Coco Islands:
- The Coco Islands, a small group of islands located in the Bay of Bengal, are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar.
- The largest island in the group, Great Coco Island, is just 55 km away from India’s strategic Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- Geologically, the Coco Islands are an extension of the Arakan Mountains and emerge as a chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal before re-emerging as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are part of the same topography as the Coco Islands.
History:
- During the early 19th century, the British government in India established a penal colony in the Andaman for convicts from the Indian subcontinent.
- The Coco Islands served as a source of food for this colony. The British government leased the islands to the Jadwet family of Burma, resulting in poor governance of the islands.
- Consequently, the British government transferred control of the islands to the government of Lower Burma in Rangoon.
- In 1882, the islands officially became part of British Burma and became a self-governing crown colony even after Burma was separated from British India in 1937.
-Source: Indian Today
