They are located in Southeast Asia, 150 kilometres (93 mi) northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea.

[1] The Nicobar Islands cover a land area of 1,841 square kilometres (711 sq mi)[2] and had a population of 36,844 during the 2011 Census.

The core area of 53,623 hectares (132,510 acres) comprises Cambell Bay and Galathea National Parks.

An indigenous tribe living at the southern tip of Great Nicobar called the Shompen, may be of Mesolithic Southeast Asian origin.

[8] The earliest extant references to the name "Nicobar" is in the Sri Lankan Pali Buddhist chronicles, the Dipavamsa (c. 3rd or 4th century CE) and the Mahavamsa (c. 4th or 5th century), which state that the children of the followers of the legendary founder of the Sri Lankan Kingdom, Vijaya, landed on Naggadipa (the island of the children, from the Pali nagga meaning 'naked').

[9] In the ninth century, the Persian explorer Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī referred to the Nicobar Islands as Lanjabālūs.

The Italian Minister of Agriculture and Commerce Luigi Torelli started a negotiation that looked promising but failed due to the unexpected end of his office and the second La Marmora Cabinet.

The British regained possession of the islands after the Surrender of Japan announced on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945.

After the war, Choudhry Rahmat Ali proposed that the Nicobars (which he called the "Balus Islands") would have a sizeable Muslim population and thus would be integrated to the Dominion of Pakistan.

[17] On 26 December 2004, the coast of the Nicobar Islands was devastated by a 10-to-15-metre-high (33 to 49 ft) tsunami following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.