Just a short boat ride from Port Blair, Ross Island—officially renamed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Island in 2018—stands as a hauntingly beautiful reminder of colonial ambition, wartime upheaval, and nature’s quiet reclamation. For visitors, it offers a rare chance to walk through a compact open-air museum where banyan roots lace over churches and clubs, and seaside paths link bunkers, barracks, and bougainvillea-shaded lawns.
The Andaman Islands have long been home to Indigenous communities, though Ross itself was not a permanent settlement site in pre-colonial times. The island’s sheltered position in Port Blair’s harbor later made it a natural choice for colonial administrators.
Following the 1857 Uprising, the British revived the Andamans as a penal colony. In 1858, they established their administrative headquarters on Ross. Over the next decades, using convict labor and imported materials, they built a compact township: the Government House (residence of the Chief Commissioner), officers’ quarters, barracks, a church, club, bakery, printing press, hospital, water distillation plant, gardens, and promenades.
Ross functioned as the polished administrative and social center, while the harsher realities of incarceration unfolded primarily at nearby Viper Island and, later, the infamous Cellular Jail. Officers on Ross enjoyed clubs, tennis courts, and ballroom gatherings; the island’s tidy avenues and public buildings projected imperial order onto a remote tropical outpost.
A major earthquake in June 1941 damaged many structures and disrupted services. Administrative functions gradually shifted away from Ross, even before the onset of World War II’s most turbulent phase in the region.
The Japanese occupied the Andaman Islands in 1942, using Ross strategically and constructing bunkers and defensive positions whose remnants you can still see. In December 1943, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, leader of the Indian National Army, visited the archipelago under Japanese auspices and ceremonially raised the tricolor in Port Blair. He symbolically renamed the islands Swaraj and Shaheed at the time—an act later echoed in modern renamings.
British control returned in 1945, but Ross never regained its old role. After Independence, nature steadily reclaimed the abandoned avenues. The Indian Navy later assumed stewardship of the island area; today, visitors encounter curated ruins, wildlife, and interpretive exhibits that balance access with conservation.
Maintained with the cooperation of the Indian Navy, Smritika contains photographs, maps, and memorabilia narrating Ross’s colonial heyday, the earthquake, and the wartime years. It’s an ideal first stop to frame your walk.
Across the site, banyan roots fuse with brickwork, creating a powerful visual of time and tropical ecology reclaiming empire.
Concrete bunkers and gun emplacements dot the shoreline. These offer vantage points over the harbor and convey the island’s strategic wartime significance.
On select evenings, a light-and-sound show animates the ruins with narration, music, and projection—condensing centuries into a dramatic hour. Schedules and ticketing vary by season; check locally in Port Blair before planning a night visit.
Look for chital (spotted deer), peafowl, and other introduced species that now roam the lawns. Please observe from a distance and do not feed wildlife. The island’s canopy—banyan, palm, and tropical hardwood—provides shade but also creates uneven, root-laced paths: wear sturdy footwear.
Ross’s buildings blend imported brick and stone with tropical adaptations—wide verandahs, high ceilings, and sea-breeze orientation. Decorative elements that once advertised imperial confidence now stand as silhouettes, their lines softened by roots and lichen.
Visiting both Ross and the Cellular Jail provides a fuller picture: Ross exhibits the administrative and social superstructure; the Jail reveals the coercive underpinnings of a penal colony. Together, they contextualize the Andamans’ unique place in the story of Indian freedom and empire.
Yes, with common-sense precautions. Paths can be uneven; supervise children near edges and bunkers. Wildlife is accustomed to visitors but should not be approached or fed.
Two to three hours suits most travelers; add time if you want to watch the evening light-and-sound show.
Photography is generally allowed for personal use; a camera fee may apply. Follow posted guidelines, especially near any restricted zones.
Its compact scale concentrates colonial, wartime, and ecological narratives into a walkable circuit—few places in India offer such layered history in such a small, atmospheric setting.
Whether you come for the vistas or the vaults, Ross Island rewards slow steps and curious eyes. Here, the Andamans’ past isn’t sealed in display cases—it’s etched into seawalls, shaded by banyans, and carried on the breeze that once fluttered imperial flags and, later, a tricolor of a different future.
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