Coco Island History in hindi | About Coco Island History

The Coco Islands (Burmese: ကိုကိုးကျွန်း) are a small group of islands in the northeastern Bay of Bengal. They are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar since 1937. The islands are located 414 km (257 mi) south of the city of Yangon. Coco Island group consists of five islands: four on Great Coco Reef and one on the Little Coco Reef. To the north of this island group lies Preparis Island, belonging to Myanmar. To the south lies the Landfall Island, belonging to India.

The islands were once Indian possessions. They were on the ancient trade route between India, Burma and Southeast Asia and were regularly visited by ships.[2] In the 16th century, Portuguese sailors named the islands after the Portuguese word for coconut, coco.[citation needed] The East India Company took over the islands in the 18th century, later becoming part of the British Raj. The Cocos Islands provided food, mainly coconuts, to a penal colony at Port Blair on South Andaman Island; the colony was established in 1858 to hold prisoners from the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[3]

The islands were leased to the Jadwet family in the 1860s, who built a lighthouse on Table Island.[4] The islands were deemed too remote to administer from India after it took many weeks for the Chief Commissioner at Port Blair to learn of a murder at the lighthouse in 1877. Control was transferred to British Burma by 1882. The islands were commercially leased starting in 1878, but attempts to develop it over the next 60 years failed.[5]

Burma retained the islands when it became a crown colony in 1937.[6] Japan occupied the islands from 1942 to 1945 during the Second World War. Burma became independent in 1948 with control over the Coco Islands. A penal colony was founded on Great Coco Island in January 1959 by Ne Win's government for political prisoners. After Ne Win’s 1962 coup d'état it developed a reputation as a Burmese "Devil’s Island". Three inmate hunger strikes from 1969 to 1971 led to the prison's closure in December 1971. Afterward the facilities were transferred to the Burmese Navy.[8]

In 1998, George Fernandes claimed that China leased the islands in 1994; no supporting evidence had emerged by 2008.