St. Martin's Island is a small island 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. It is about 8 km west of the
northwest coast of Myanmar, at the mouth of the Naf River. The local name of
the island is "Narical Gingira", also spelled "Narikel
Jinjira/Jinjera", means 'Coconut Island' in Bengali. It is the only coral
island in Bangladesh.
Most
of the island's 5500 inhabitants live primarily from fishing. Besides, the
other staple crops are rice and coconut. Being very common in the island, Algae
is collected, then dried and finally exported to Myanmar. Between October and
April, the fishermen from neighbouring areas bring their caught fishes to the
island's temporary wholesale market. As the centre and the south are mainly
farmland and makeshift huts, most of the strenuous things are around the far
north of the island.
