Ross Island | India

Postcard
India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands are an isolated group of 572 tropical islands, of which only 38 are currently inhabited. The islands are known for stunning beaches, thriving marine life, rich coral reefs and largely undisturbed primary forests. But beyond the idyllic views lie a dark past.

One of the islands, Ross Island, is a morbidly fascinating ghost town, where the remnants of a 19th-Century British settlement lie in ruins. Abandoned in the 1940s, the island is being reclaimed by nature.

In 1857, reacting to an unanticipated Indian revolt, the British Empire chose these remote islands as the site of a penal colony for Indian mutineers.