Viper Island in Andaman Islands

Freedom fighters like Nanigopal and Nandlal Pulindas, who had resorted to hunger strike at the Cellular Jail, were imprisoned at Viper Island. The jail at Viper, where prisoners deported from the mainland were confined, was built by the British under the supervision of Major Fort.

Viper Island derives its name from the vessel H.M.S. Viper in which Lt. Archibald Blair came to Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1789. The vessel, it is believed, met with an accident and its wreckage was found near the island. This small island was the site of the jail where the British used to imprison convicts and political prisoners. It has the ruins of a gallows atop a hillock.The jail was abandoned when the Cellular Jail was constructed in 1906. In any talk about Andaman and its role in the freedom struggle, it is the Cellular Jail that finds frequent mention. But, many years before the Cellular Jail was constructed, it was the jail at Viper Island that was used by the British to inflict the worst form of torture and hardship on those who strove to free the country from the British rule. British established their Penal settlement in Port Blair in 1858 and commissioned the construction of a jail and they came up with Viper Chain Gang Jail. Before the Cellular Jail was constructed, Viper Island encountered the distress and agony of the freedom fighters. This red ruin is iconic and was constructed in 1867. Similar to the Cellular Jail, this too had individual cells. The reason behind the rechristening of this structure is because some prisoners here were tied with chains and their legs were squashed with coupling irons. None of the prisoners were granted mercy, not even the revered personalities; like Brij Kishor Singh Deo (Puri’s Maharaja) who lost his life here. Today, this two storeyed building is in a dilapidated form and is a home to local birds and squirrels. But its aura continues to haunt its visitors.