Wildlife in Andaman Islands

The Andaman & Nicobar Islands is a beautiful club of 572 emerald islands, only a few are inhabited while most of them are untouched and unexplored to the world. Covering an area of 8,249 km, these islands is absolutely wonderful and beyond your imagination. Rich marine life, enchanting bird species, reef, under sea wealth, every green forests make you quite different experience of wildlife from all over the country. The islands have 96 sanctuaries and 9 National parks.

Wildlife Species in the Park

The Islands is covered with a unique luxuriant evergreen tropical rain forest. It has around 2200 varieties of plants, out of which 200 are considered as endemic and 1300 do not occur in rest part of India. The southern part contains on epiphytic vegetation, the middle one harbours mostly moist deciduous forests while the Nicobar is blanketed with lush grasslands. Almost 86.2% of the total land area is covered with diverse kind of vegetation.

As far as mammal in Island is concerned, they are not here in large number. Forest department has reported to have around 50 species of mammals in Andaman & Nicobar. Some prominent mammals in the park include the sus scrofa Andamanensis, S.S.nicobaricus, Andaman wild boar, feral elephants, 26 species of rodents and 14 species of bat .

The Islands has 270 species of birds including 14 species endemic birds. The endemic birds are Andaman serpent-eagle, Andaman crake, brown coucal, andaman scops-owl, narcondam hornbill, Andaman woodpecker, Andaman drongo, Andaman treepie, Nicobar serpent-eagle, Nicobar sparrowhawk, Nicobar parakeet, Nicobar bulbul, Nicobar scrubfowl, Andaman woodpigeon, Andaman cuckoo-dove, Andaman hawk-owl and white-headed starling.

The island is solely known for having rich and diverse kind of marine life. Out of 1000 marine life on the coral, 135 are of Andaman alone. As you plunge into the water, you will have stunning the coral heads and the amazing variety of fish. Some frequently found corals in the Island include brain coral, finger coral, antler coral, plate coral, vase coral and leather coral. And butterflies are one more spectacular feature of wildlife at the Islands. It has 225 species of beautiful butterflies, out of which 10 are considered endemic to the Islands.