Question

India has …………………… main island groups.
A. 2
B. 3
C. 4
D. 5

Answer 1

Hint: The term ‘island’ can be simply defined by a block of landform, all the sides of which are surrounded by water bodies. We can primarily locate islands in various water bodies like oceans, rivers, lakes, and seas.

Complete Answer:
Usually, islands occur in the form of clusters. They either remain closely scattered or assembled. We use the term ‘archipelago, to describe a chain or collections of islands in any water body. Island groups are the indispensable parts of Indian geography and broadly its location. They are important both for the economy and foreign affairs of India. There are around 1208 islands in total in India. They are mostly habited, few remained inhabited.
The Indian states having either major or minor islands are – Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. The union territories having islands are Lakshadweep, Pondicherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. Andaman and Nicobar Islands are considered as main island groups because it consists of about 572 islands of the sea of Bengal and Andaman. Some of them are sentinel islands, nicobar islands, Andaman islands, etc.
Lakshadeep is a collection of around 95 islands and islets. Some of the famous ones are Kavaratti, Agatti, Minicoy, and Amini.
So, the correct answer is Option A

Note: When a significantly large number of islands exist together, we can call them major or main island groups. Among all the islands, the major ones are Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.