The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean halfway between Africa and Indonesia. The territory comprises the six atolls of the Chagos Archipelago (Hindi and other North Indian languages: फेहंद्वीप Phehandweep ; Tamil: பேயிகான தீவுகள் Paeikaana Theevukal ; Dhivehi: ފޭހަންދީބު Feyhandheebu) with over 1,000 individual islands – many tiny – amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).
The largest island is Diego Garcia (area 44 km2), the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Following the eviction of the native population (Chagossians) in the 1960s, the only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 4,000 (2004 figures).
Read more about British Indian Ocean Territory: History, Depopulation, Politics and Law, Geography and Communications, Demographics, Economy
Famous quotes containing the words british, indian, ocean and/or territory:
“We “need” cancer because, by the very fact of its incurability, it makes all other diseases, however virulent, not cancer.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. “Under the Sign of Cancer,” Myths and Memories (1986)
“I am not sure but all that would tempt me to teach the Indian my religion would be his promise to teach me his.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Everything that ever walked or crawled on the face of the earth, swum the depths of the ocean or soared through the skies left its imprint here.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar)
“We found ourselves always torn between the mothers in our heads and the women we needed to become simply to stay alive.With one foot in the past and another in the future, we hobbled through first love, motherhood, marriage, divorce, careers, menopause, widowhood—never knowing what or who we were supposed to be, staking out new emotional territory at every turn—like pioneers.”
—Erica Jong (20th century)