Rutland Island is an island located across the Macpherson Strait from South Andaman Island

South Andaman Island

South Andaman Island is the southernmost island of the Great Andaman and is home to the majority of the population of the Andaman Islands. Port Blair, the capital of the islands, is located on the southern part of this island. Some areas of the island are restricted areas for non-Indians; however,...

. As one of the Andaman Islands

Andaman Islands

The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...

, Rutland I forms the southernmost main island of the closely situated Great Andaman

Great Andaman

Great Andaman is the main archipelago of the Andaman Islands of India. It comprises five major islands. From north to south, these are North Andaman, Middle Andaman, South Andaman, Baratang and Rutland Island...

 archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

. It is separated from Little Andaman

Little Andaman

Little Andaman island is the fourth largest of the Andaman Islands of India with an area of 734.39 km², lying at the southern end of the archipelago. It is separated from Rutland Island in Great Andaman by the Duncan Passage. It is home to the Onge tribe, who call the island Egu Belong, and...

 by the Duncan Passage

Duncan Passage

Duncan Passage is a strait in the Indian Ocean. It is about wide; it separates Rutland Island to the north, and Little Andaman to the south. West of Duncan Passage is the Bay of Bengal; east is the Andaman Sea....

. The island spans an area of approximately 109.3 km², and has a coastline measuring some 60. km 

It is rich in marine life with the shallow waters near the island having a good representation of smaller fish and coral. The island also offers an ideal base for training open water divers. The vegetation of Rutland Island is similar to that of North Sentinel Island

North Sentinel Island

North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It lies to the west of the southern part of South Andaman Island, and has an area of 72 km². Most of the island is forested...

 with dry sandy soils. Although hilly, the island is overgrown with fairly open jungle and brush.

The island was formerly home to the Jangil

Jangil

The Jangil were one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They were formerly distributed through the interior of Rutland Island, and were given the name Rutland Jarawa because it was supposed that they were related to the neighbouring Jarawa...

, one of the indigenous

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 Andamanese

Andamanese

The Andamanese people are the various aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, which is the northern district of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India, located in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. They include the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese, and...

 groups. The Jangil (also called "Rutland Jarawa" since they were thought to have been related to the Jarawa

Jarawa (Andaman Islands)

The Jarawa are one of the adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-350 individuals. Since they have largely shunned interactions with outsiders, many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood...

 of South Andaman) occupied much of the interior of the island according to mid-19th century British

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

 accounts, however their interactions with outsiders were few and far between. Up to the early 20th century there are only a handful of documented encounters with Jangil individuals. The last documented encounter was in 1907, and when in the 1920s a more extensive expedition to the island's interior was conducted, no traces of their active habitation were found; the Jangil had become extinct.

From time to time other indigenous Andamanese, such as the Onge from Little Andaman Island to the south and Great Andamanese

Great Andamanese

Great Andamanese is a collective term used to refer to related indigenous peoples who lived throughout most of the Great Andaman archipelago, the main and closely situated group of islands in the Andaman Islands. Numbering between 200 and 700, each of the Great Andamanese peoples maintained a...

tribes to the north had also set up fishing communities on Rutland. However, with the great reduction in numbers of these peoples, and their (enforced) relocations to more restricted areas, the island is presently without any permanent indigenous settlement.