ST.MARTIN

Overview

St. Martin’s Island is a small island (area only 8 km²) in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf  peninsula, and forming the southernmost part of Bangladesh. There is a small adjoining island that is separated at high tide, called Chera Dwip. It is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) west of the northwest coast of Myanmar, at the mouth of the Naf River. The first settlement started 250 years ago by Arabian sailors who named the island ‘Zajira’. During British occupation the island was named St. Martin Island. During the First Anglo-Burmese War  between the British and Burmese empires in 1824–1826, rival claims to the island were a major factor. The local names of the island are “Narical Gingira”, also spelled “Narikel Jinjira/Jinjera”, which means ‘Coconut Island’ in Bengali, and “Daruchini Dwip”. It is the only coral island in Bangladesh.