Lakshadweep // ( Lakṣadvīp (help·info), Lakshadīb, Malayalam :
ലക്ഷദ്വീപ്), formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and
Amindivi Islands / / & //, is a group of islands in the
Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 kilometres (120 to 270 mi) 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 32 square kilometres (12 sq mi).2 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