Coco Island -UPSC Current Affairs

Description

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Context

Amid recent reports of suspicious infrastructure upgrades at Coco Islands, a MQ-9 drone leased by the Indian Navy was seen obtaining information around the nearby areas of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

About

The Coco Islands are a small group of islands in the northeastern Bay of Bengal.
They are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar.
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 Bay of Bengal lies to the west of the islands. The Andaman Sea lies to the east.
The Coco Islands consist of three main islands, namely Great Coco Island and the smaller Little Coco Island, separated by the Alexandra Channel, as well as Table Island, a third small island located near Great Coco Island.
Geographically, they are a part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago, most of which belongs to India. They are separated from Landfall Island, the northernmost island in the Indian part of the archipelago, by the 20 kilometres wide Coco Channel.