• Port Blair, the capital city of the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, has been renamed Sri Vijaya Puram.

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the decision was taken to free the nation from colonial imprints as the Andaman & Nicobar Islands had an unparalleled place in the country's freedom struggle and history.

• While the earlier name had a colonial legacy, Sri Vijaya Puram symbolises the victory achieved in India’s freedom struggle and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands' unique role in it, the home minister said.

• The island territory that once served as the naval base of the Chola Empire is now poised to be the critical base for India’s strategic and development aspirations, he added.

Key facts about Andaman & Nicobar Islands:

• Being a Union Territory, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands come under the direct administrative control of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

• The Andamans is world renowned for its pristine natural beauty, rich marine life, flora and fauna spread around 836 islands, islets and rocks.

• The islands present picturesque views with rich culture and heritage.

• The archipelago, located in the east of the Indian mainland geographically, floats in splendid isolation in the Bay of Bengal. Once a hill range extending from Myanmar to Indonesia, these picturesque undulating islands and islets are covered with dense rain-fed, damp and evergreen forests and endless varieties of exotic flora and fauna.

• Most of these islands (550) are in the Andaman Group, 28 of which are inhabited. 

• The smaller Nicobars comprise some 22 main islands (10 inhabited). The Andaman and Nicobars are separated by the Ten Degree Channel, which is 150 kilometres wide.

• The archipelago has been inhabited for several thousand years, at the very least.

• As per 2011 Census, the total population of Andaman & Nicobar stands at 3,79,944. 

• Early archaeological evidence goes back some 2,200 years. However, indications from genetic, cultural and linguistic isolation studies point to habitation going back 30,000 to 60,000 years, well into the Middle Palaeolithic.

• In the Andaman Islands, the various Andamanese people maintained their separated existence through diversifying into distinct linguistic, cultural and territorial groups.

• In the 1850s, the indigenous people of Andamans first came into contact with the outside world.

• The local people are the Great Andamanese, who collectively represent at least 10 distinct sub-groups and languages; the Jarawa: the jungle (or Rutland Jarawa); the Onge; and the Sentinelese (the most isolated of all the groups).

• The indigenous people of the Nicobars (unrelated to the Andamanese) have a similarly isolated and lengthy association with the islands. There are two main groups: the Nicobarese, or Nicobari living throughout many of the islands; and the Shompen, restricted to the interior of Great Nicobar.

• Andaman & Nicobar Islands have been recognised as an eco-friendly tourism destination. As a tourist paradise, these Islands have historic Cellular Jail, Ross and Havelock Islands.

• Ross Island was renamed as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Dweep. Havelock and Neil Islands have become Swaraj and Shaheed Islands.

• There are 96 wildlife sanctuaries, nine national parks and one biosphere reserve in these islands.

• Indira Point, the southernmost tip of India, is located in Great Nicobar Island. The point was earlier known as Pygmalion Point and Parsons Point. This was renamed after Indira Gandhi visited the point in 1984. It was officially renamed in October 1985. 

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