CDS (I) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 72 of 120

Correct — C, Little Andaman and Car Nicobar. The Ten Degree Channel is named after the parallel of ten degrees north latitude that runs through it, and it is the stretch of the Bay of Bengal that divides the Andaman group from the Nicobar group — roughly 150 km of open water. Read the archipelago from north to south and the order is North Andaman, Middle Andaman, South Andaman, then the Duncan Passage, then Little Andaman, then the Ten Degree Channel, then Car Nicobar, then the rest of the Nicobars down to Great Nicobar at the far end. Little Andaman is the southernmost island of the Andaman group and Car Nicobar the northernmost of the Nicobars, so those two are the islands the channel actually lies between. The wider statement that it separates the Andamans from the Nicobars and the narrower statement that it separates Little Andaman from Car Nicobar are the same fact at two scales, which is why both appear as correct answers in different papers.

• (a)North Andaman and Middle Andaman — North Andaman and Middle Andaman are adjacent islands within the same group, divided by a narrow strait. The Ten Degree Channel is a broad sea passage between two island groups and lies well to the south of both.
• (b)South Andaman and Little Andaman — The water between South Andaman and Little Andaman is the Duncan Passage. Both islands are in the Andaman group, so no channel between them can be the divide between the Andamans and the Nicobars.
• (d)Car Nicobar and Great Nicobar — Car Nicobar is the northernmost Nicobar and Great Nicobar the southernmost, with the whole central Nicobar group lying between them. The Ten Degree Channel is north of Car Nicobar, not south of it.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a chain of some 570 islands running roughly north to south for about 800 km in the Bay of Bengal, the exposed crest of a submarine ridge that continues the Arakan Yoma of Myanmar and reappears further south in Sumatra. The chain is administered as a single Union Territory from Port Blair, but the two groups are geographically and culturally distinct, and the Ten Degree Channel is the break between them. Great Nicobar, at the southern end, carries Indira Point, the southernmost point of Indian territory.

Every option in this question is a real strait or a real pair of neighbours, so recognition is not enough — the sequence has to be held in order. The name is the strongest hint available: a channel named for a line of latitude must run east to west, and ten degrees north cuts the archipelago at exactly the point where the Andamans end and the Nicobars begin. Two other named waters are worth carrying alongside, because they are the standard distractors: the Duncan Passage between South Andaman and Little Andaman, and the Coco Strait between the northern tip of the Andamans and Myanmar's Coco Islands.

• The Ten Degree Channel separates the Andaman group from the Nicobar group and is about 150 km wide.
• Little Andaman is the southernmost island of the Andaman group; Car Nicobar is the northernmost of the Nicobar group.
• The Duncan Passage lies between South Andaman and Little Andaman.
• The Coco Strait separates the northern Andamans from Myanmar's Coco Islands.
• Indira Point on Great Nicobar is the southernmost point of Indian territory.

• Confusing the Ten Degree Channel with the Nine Degree and Eight Degree Channels, which lie in Lakshadweep, not in the Bay of Bengal.
• Naming the water between South Andaman and Little Andaman as the Ten Degree Channel; that is the Duncan Passage.
• Assuming the channel lies inside the Nicobar group because Car Nicobar is named in the answer; it is the northern boundary of that group.

As which islands a named channel separates, as which channel separates two named islands, or inside a north-to-south sequencing item.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Duncan Passage lies between

  • (a)North Andaman and Middle Andaman
  • (b)South Andaman and Little Andaman
  • (c)Little Andaman and Car Nicobar
  • (d)Little Nicobar and Great Nicobar

  Answer(b) South Andaman and Little Andaman — both islands of the Andaman group; the Ten Degree Channel lies further south.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Nine Degree Channel separates

  • (a)the Andaman Islands from the Nicobar Islands
  • (b)Minicoy from the main Lakshadweep group
  • (c)India from Sri Lanka
  • (d)Great Nicobar from Sumatra

  Answer(b) Minicoy from the main Lakshadweep group — the latitude-named channels of Lakshadweep are the standard companions to the Ten Degree Channel.