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The
Geography of
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As we have said in the Maldives
Introduction of this website "www.hellomaldives.com", the Maldivian archipelago is made
up of about 1,190 small, tropical, palm and bush covered coral islands stretching across
the Equator from 7 degree Latitude North. Together with the Lakshadweep formerly called
"Laccadive Islands" to the North and the Chagos Islands to the South, forming
part of a vast submarine mountain range, on the crest of which coral reefs have grown. |
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Measuring 820 km North to South and
120 km East to West at its greatest width, the closest neighbors are India and Shrilanka. With a population of about 378,000 people, only about 205 islands are inhabited.
And more than 100 islands are set aside exclusively for tourist resort development.
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One would expect the Indian Ocean,
like any of the other oceans of the world to have its share of storms, waves and other
phenomena related to large bodies of water. The Indian Ocean does fulfill this expectation
till one begins to approach any of the coral atolls right in the middle of it. Indeed, the
islands of Maldives are low lying and small. And these islands are rarely more than 2
meters (7 feet) above the sea level. Thus extremely vulnerable to surging tides and
storms. You can cross most of the islands by a 10 minute walk, only a few are longer than
2 km. And the longest is 8 km (5 miles). Though our islands are protected by coral reefs
with the help of storms, winds and waves; inevitably some are washed away. Thus, in 1812
and in 1955 devastating gales destroyed many northern islands. And in 1964, an island in
Alifu (Ari) Atoll, known as "Hangyaameedhoo" was inundated by high waves.
Further the capital, Male' was flooded by a severe storm in 1987. |
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If, as some scientists predict, the sea level continues to rise as a result of global
warming, then Maldives, with its ancient and unique culture, may all be swept away within
fifty years. Exactly how the atolls were formed is still unresolved. In 1842, after
studying atolls in the Pacific and Atlantic, Charles Darwin suggested that they were
created when volcanic land rose from the sea and a coral reef grew around its edge. |
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| As the volcano gradually sank back
into the sea it left the coral reefs encircling a shallow water-filled lagoon. Islands
developed when currents and tides swept coral debris into sand bars, which eventually,
were colonized by plants and trees. Although Darwin added a postscript to say that there
was something special about the Maldives islands, most scientists accept his theory. More
recently, however, Hans Hass has suggested that during hundreds of thousands of years a
platform of coral reefs built up on the submerged mountain chain in the Indian Ocean until
they burst through the surface. Porous and unstable, the coral platform sagged in the
middle, leaving only a ring of the hardest and highest coral the rims of the atolls where
debris and sand accumulated and vegetation took hold to form islands. These tiny specks of
land separated by great stretches of water have long been a great puzzle. |
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| Just as the early history of Maldives is shrouded in mystery, so no one knows exactly how
many islands there are in the archipelago. The British Admiralty chart lists some 1,100
islands, and a recent government count found 1,196. But if sand bars and coral outcrops
were included the figure would be close to 2,000. Accurate definition is further confused
by the fact that islands come and go. Some combine, others split in two and occasionally
islets emerge from the coral reefs. A 1955 storm created three new islands in Shaviyani
Atoll, while others have slowly eroded. Around 1960, for instance, the fairly large island
of Feydhoo Finolhu in Male' Atoll vanished through a combination of natural erosion and
inhabitants taking away sand. It was later rebuilt.
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| To compound matters, as yet there is no agreement on what exactly constitutes an island in
the archipelago: what, for instance, is the status of a large sand spit? Yet all this is
part of the mystique of traveling through Maldives, where you may come across an island
which has no name, is not shown on any map and has no human footprint on its shores.
Officially, 199 of the islands are populated. Many more show signs of past settlement, and
some desert islands are used regularly by neighboring islanders for collecting firewood,
coconuts and even cultivation. As a rule of thumb, when the number of males who attend the
local mosque falls below forty, islanders move to a more populous island. |
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