CDS (I) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 87 of 120

Correct — D, Great Nicobar. Mount Thullier rises on Great Nicobar, the largest and southernmost island of the Nicobar group, and at 642 metres it is the highest point both of that island and of the Nicobars as a whole. The number in the stem is the giveaway once you know the other one: the highest peak of the entire Union Territory is Saddle Peak in North Andaman, at about 732 metres, so a 642-metre summit cannot be in the Andaman group's north where the higher ground is, and must belong to the other group. Great Nicobar is also where Indira Point lies, the southernmost point of Indian territory, and the island carries a biosphere reserve with two national parks. The spelling varies between papers — this one prints Thullier and the 2022 second-session paper prints Thuillier — but it is the same peak.

• (a)North Andaman — North Andaman carries Saddle Peak, at about 732 metres the highest point in the whole of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. That is the peak associated with North Andaman, not Mount Thullier.
• (b)Middle Andaman — Middle Andaman is associated with Mount Diavolo, a well-known summit of the Andaman group and a standard alternative in questions of this kind. Mount Thullier is far to the south, across the Ten Degree Channel.
• (c)South Andaman — South Andaman carries Port Blair, the territorial capital, and Mount Harriet, but not Mount Thullier. Every island in this option and the two above it lies in the Andaman group; the peak in question is a Nicobar one.

The Andaman and Nicobar chain is the emergent crest of a submarine ridge that continues the Arakan Yoma of Myanmar northward and reappears in Sumatra to the south, so its relief is a line of hills rather than a plateau. The high ground is concentrated in the north of the Andaman group and on the largest Nicobar island. Saddle Peak in North Andaman at about 732 metres is the territorial maximum; Mount Thullier on Great Nicobar at 642 metres is the highest in the Nicobars; Mount Diavolo in Middle Andaman and Mount Harriet in South Andaman are the other named summits that recur in question papers.

Four islands, one peak, and the decision turns on knowing the ranking of the territory's summits rather than the peak itself. Fix Saddle Peak at 732 metres in North Andaman as the reference number and everything else follows: any figure below it that is described as important must be the leader of some smaller subset, and the obvious subset is the Nicobar group, whose principal island is Great Nicobar. It also helps to remember that Great Nicobar is by far the largest island in its group and the only one big enough to carry a summit of that height. As of the present day Great Nicobar is in the news for a large infrastructure proposal involving a transshipment port and an airport, so the island's geography is worth carrying beyond this question.

• Mount Thullier, 642 metres, is on Great Nicobar and is the highest point of the Nicobar Islands.
• Saddle Peak in North Andaman, about 732 metres, is the highest point in the whole Union Territory.
• Mount Diavolo is in Middle Andaman and Mount Harriet in South Andaman.
• Great Nicobar is the largest and southernmost island of the Nicobar group and carries Indira Point, India's southernmost point.
• The Ten Degree Channel separates the Andaman group from the Nicobar group, so Great Nicobar and Saddle Peak lie on opposite sides of it.

• Assuming Mount Thullier is the highest point of the whole territory; that is Saddle Peak in North Andaman.
• Placing Mount Diavolo or Mount Harriet on Great Nicobar; they belong to Middle and South Andaman.
• Reading the alternative spelling Thuillier as a different peak.

As a peak-to-island question, as which is not a peak of the territory, or as a ranking item on the highest point of the Andamans against the highest in the Nicobars.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Saddle Peak, the highest point of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is located in

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

  Answer(c) North Andaman — at about 732 metres, higher than Mount Thullier's 642 metres on Great Nicobar.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Indira Point, the southernmost point of Indian territory, lies on which island?

  • (a)Little Andaman
  • (b)Car Nicobar
  • (c)Great Nicobar
  • (d)Minicoy

  Answer(c) Great Nicobar — the same island on which Mount Thullier stands.