Chagos Archipelago
The Chagos Archipelago is a group of 65 main tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, lying 500 km south of the Maldives. As a part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, the entire archipelago is a British overseas territory.
The entire land area of the islands is a mere 63 km², with the largest island, Diego García, having an area of 44 km². The archipelago consists of six atoll formations of all sizes (not counting completely sunken atolls such as Pitt Bank, Victory Bank, Centurian Bank and Speakers Bank), including the largest atoll structure of the world, the Great Chagos bank with a total area (mostly water) of 13,000 km².
- Diego García (including Diego Garcia and three smaller islands at the Northern end)
- Egmont Islands or Six Iles (7 islets)
- Peros Banhos (27 islets)
- Salomon Islands (11 islets)
- Great Chagos Bank including the Eagle Islands (Ile Aigle and Cow Island, or Little Eagle), the Three Brothers (3), Nelsons Island and Danger Island
- Blenheim Reef (submerged atoll)
The largest individual islands by are are Diego García (27.20 km²), Eagle (Great Chagos Bank, 2.45 km²), Ile Pierre (Peros Banhos, 1.50 km²), Eastern Egmont (Egmont Islands, 1.50 km²), Ile de Coin (Peros Banhos, 1.28 km²) and Ile Boddam (Salomon Islands, 1.08 km²).
The islands were discovered by Vasco da Gama in the early sixteenth century, then claimed in the eighteenth century by France as a possession of Mauritius. The United Kingdom gained possession of both Mauritius and the archipelago in 1814, and retained the islands as part of the British Indian Ocean Territory when Mauritius gained independence. Since 1976, the archipelago has been coterminous with the British Indian Ocean Territory, but it is also claimed by Mauritius and the Seychelles. Although there was no pre-European population, a few hundred people of mostly Indian descent known as the Ilois lived on the islands for several hundred years until they were expelled to Mauritius by the British Government between 1967 and 1973. Currently, the only habitation is a joint US-UK naval support facility on Diego Garcia. Other unhabited islands, especially in the Salomon group, are common stopping points for long-distance sailors travelling from Southeast Asia to the Red Sea or the coast of Africa.
The British Government instituted an investigation into relocating the former islanders to some of the uninhabited islands, but concluded that this was impossible due to a lack of fresh water and risk of flooding. This is disputed by the former islanders, who point out that rainfall in the archipelago is among the highest in the world and that the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was reported as causing little damage in the islands.