Demographers reject the official headcount, saying the chain has been swamped by settlers from the Indian states of Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
"Our population has crossed 650,000 from an initial 300,000, and this is putting a terrible strain on the Andamans' carrying capacity," said Madhu Krishnan, chairman of the Islanders' Organization Front, an umbrella forum of local NGOs.
RSS