Saint Martin

St. Martin’s Island (সেন্ট মার্টিন্স দ্বীপ/নারিকেল জিঞ্জিরা)

St. Martin’s Island (Bengali: সেন্ট মার্টিন্স দ্বীপ) is a small island (area only 36 km²) in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula, and forming the southernmost part of Bangladesh. There is a small adjoining island that is separated at high tide, called Chera Dwip. It is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) west of the northwest coast of Myanmar, at the mouth of the Naf River. Millennia ago, the island used to be an extension of the Teknaf peninsula, but at a later time some portion of this peninsula got submerged and thus the southernmost part of the aforementioned peninsula became an island and was disconnected from the Bangladesh mainland. The first settlement started 250 years ago by Arabian sailors who named the island ‘Jazeera’. During British occupation, the island was named after the then Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Mr. Martin as St. Martin Island. The local names of the island are “Narikel jinjira” which means ‘Coconut Island’, and “Daruchini Dwip” which means “Cinnamon island”. It is the only coral island in Bangladesh.

The island makes up the Saint Martin’s Union Parishad. It has 9 villages/areas:

• Paschim Para (Western Neighbourhood)
• Deil Para
• Uttar Para (Northern Neighbourhood)
• Majher Para (Middle Neighbourhood)
• Dakshin Para (Southern Neighbourhood)
• Purba Para (Eastern Neighbourhood)
• Konar Para (Edge Neighbourhood)
• Nazrul Para (Neighbourhood of Nazrul)
• Golachipa (literally “narrow neck”)