HAVELOCK ISLAND

Havelock Island (often just Havelock for short) with an area of some 92 km2 is the largest of the islands which comprise Ritchie's Archipelago, a chain of islands to the east of Great Andaman in the Andaman Islands. Havelock is situated 57 km North East of Capital City Port Blair.

The island is named after Henry Havelock, a British general active in India. The island's current population consists of Bengali settlers.

It is one of the few places that the administration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India has permitted and encouraged development of tourism, with a focus on promoting eco-tourism.

Havelock Island avoided much of the devastation which was visited upon most of the shores affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and its resultant tsunami, and there were no documented casualties.

Beach No. 7 on the western coast, better known as "Radha Nagar" Beach, is one of the most popular beaches on Havelock and was named "Best Beach in Asia" by Time in 2004.[1]. Other notable beaches include Elephant Beach on the northwest coast and Vijaynagar Beach (No. 5), Beach No. 3 and Beach No. 1 on the east coast. After the tsunami in 2004, Beach No. 1 was turned into a memorial site.

Havelock is known for rich marine life, especially the corals.[citation needed] it is easily approachable by government boats which run daily from port blair from a point locally known as marine jetty . the boat run daily at 6 am . prior booking can be done but the ships are big so one can easily get tickets on the spot .the radha nagar beach is big and beautiful and is about 10 kms from boat point