[2] Although the island was uninhabited and there were no permanent settlements or stations located on it, both India and Bangladesh claimed sovereignty over it because of speculation over the existence of oil and natural gas in the region.

Later, various remote sensing surveys showed that the island had expanded gradually to an area of about 10,000 square metres (110,000 sq ft) at low tide, including a number of ordinarily submerged shoals.

India had reportedly hoisted the Indian flag on the island in 1981 and established a temporary base of Border Security Forces (BSF), regularly visiting with its Water Wing gunboats.

There is no available conclusive evidence as to which side of the island the main channel flowed, and it may have changed over time given shifting silt of the Sundarbans delta.

[7] On the other hand, the Bangladeshi government claimed, as during Ziaur Rahman's visit to India in the late 1970s, that data provided clearly showed the main current flow on the western side of the island's location, thus favoring Bangladesh.

[11] In March 2010, Sugata Hazra of the School of Oceanographic Studies at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, said that the island had disappeared and that sea level rise caused by climate change was a factor.