Status Survey of Wetland Birds in the Rutland Island, Andaman

The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago consists of 572 islands and extending over 800 km (Fig. 1). These islands were once a part of the Asian mainland but got detached some 100 million years ago during the Upper Mesozoic Period due to geological upheaval. The existing groups of islands constitute the physiographic continuation of the mountainous ranges of Naga and Lushai Hills and Arakan Yoma of Burma through Cape Negrais to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and southeast of Sumatra. The chains of these islands are in fact the camel backs of the submerged mountain ranges projecting above the sea level running north to south between 6° 45´ and 13° 30´ N latitudes and 90° 20´ and 93° 56´ E longitudes with an extent of 8,249 km².