Lakshadweep

Lakshadweep /ləkˈʃɑːdwiːp/ ( Lakṣadvīp, Lakshadīb), formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands /ˌlækədaɪv ˌmɪnɨkɔɪ/ & /ˌæmɨnˈdiːvi/, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 km off the South Western coast of India. The archipelago is a Union Territory and is governed by the Union Government of India. They were also known as Laccadive Islands, although geographically this is only the name of the central subgroup of the group. Lakshadweep comes from "Lakshadweepa", which means "one hundred thousand islands" in Sanskrit as well as many Indian languages like Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and others. The islands form the smallest Union Territory of India: their total surface area is just 11 sq mi or 32 km2. The lagoon area covers about 4,200 square kilometres (1,600 sq mi), the territorial waters area 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) and the exclusive economic zone area 400,000 square kilometres (150,000 sq mi). The region forms a single Indian district with ten Sub divisions. Kavaratti serves as the capital of the Union Territory and the region comes under the jurisdiction of Kerala High Court. The islands are the northernmost of the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands, which are the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge.