Andaman and Nicobar is an Union Territory. It comprises of about 350 islands situated in the Bay of Bengal. Port Blair, a former British Penal settlement, named after Captain Blair of the East India Company, is the Capital of the Union Territory. It is connected both by air and sea to the mainland (Chennai and Kolkatta) a distance of 1300 kms.
The population is a cosmopolitan group of Bengalis, Punjabis, Tamilians, Malayalis, Orissa, Chatishgarh, Jharkhand and a sprinkling from almost all the other states of India.
The Andaman and Nicobar Mission was taken care of by the Archdiocese of Rangoon - Burma. After the independence in 1947, the Holy See handed over the whole area of Andaman and Nicobar to the Archbishop of Ranchi. In 1965 at the request of the Archbishop of Ranchi the Andamans and Nicobar was handed over by the Holy See to the Pilar Fathers Pilar, Goa. On June 22, 1984, His Holiness Pope John Paul II elevated it into a diocese and appointed Most Rev Alex Dias, sfx, once a priest here, its first Bishop. |
