The Andaman and Nicobar Islands with a geographical area of 8,249 sq km comprise a chain of 572 islands in the Bay of Bengal at a distance of about 1200 km from the East coast of mainland India. The topography is generally hilly and undulating. The main hill range runs from north to south. The northernmost Landfall Island is separated by sea of about190 km from the mainland of Myanmar and the southernmost Great Nicobar is about 150 km away from Sumatara. The Andaman group of Islands is separated from the Nicobar group by a150 km wide under sea deep channel situated at 10? N latitude, called Ten degree Channel. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is unique in its flora and fauna because of the tropical humid climate, insular nature with no contiguity of land with rest of the country. Nylander (1873) initiated lichenological studies from the Andaman Islands and reported 63 species including 42 new species. Since then, a total of 363 species of lichens in 82 genera and 30 families were recorded from the region by National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow and Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, India until 2010. Botanical Survey of India initiated reassessment on the lichens of the Islands in 2011 and the investigations revealed the occurrence of 552 species in 118 genera and 33 families. A large number of taxa were described as new to science and new records for India. Graphidaceae (145 spp.), Arthoniaceae (61 spp.), Porinaceae (43 spp.), Pyrenulaceae (41 spp.), Pilocarpaceae (37 spp.), Trypetheliaceae (31 spp.) and Roccellaceae (30 spp.) are the dominant families. Graphis (41 spp.), Pornia (38 spp.), Pyrenula (34 spp.), Cryptothecia (18 spp.), Ocellularia and Thelotrema (16 spp. each), and Opegrapha and Strigula (15 spp. each) are the dominant genera.
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