Q.Which one of the water bodies separates the Andaman from the Nicobar?

The Ten Degree Channel is the water body that separates the Andaman Islands from the Nicobar Islands. It is named after the latitude at which it lies, roughly 10 degrees north of the Equator. The channel runs in an east-west direction and is a significant feature of the Bay of Bengal's geography.

• The 11° Channel lies further north, separating the Andaman Islands from the Car Nicobar group in some contexts, but it is not the main divide between the two island groups.
• The Gulf of Mannar is located between India and Sri Lanka, far to the southwest, and is unrelated to the Andaman–Nicobar chain.
• The Andaman Sea is the larger sea that borders these islands to the east, not a channel between them.

So the correct option is the one that names the channel by its latitudinal position.

The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is not one continuous chain of land, but two distinct groups of islands strung out in the Bay of Bengal. Between these two groups lies a stretch of sea that acts as a natural boundary — the Ten Degree Channel. The name comes from its position along the 10° North latitude line, which is why it is also called the 10° Channel.

To picture it: the Andamans lie to the north, the Nicobars to the south, and the channel is the watery corridor that divides them. This is not a narrow strait between two close islands; it is a broad passage of open sea, wide enough that the two island groups feel geographically separate even though they are administered as one Union Territory.

Now, the other options in the question are worth clearing out of the way, because they are classic distractors. The 11° Channel is a real water body, but it separates the Little Andaman from the Nicobar group — not the Andamans from the Nicobars as a whole. The Gulf of Mannar lies far to the south, between India's Tamil Nadu coast and Sri Lanka, and has nothing to do with these islands. The Andaman Sea is the larger sea that surrounds the entire archipelago on its eastern side, not a dividing channel between the two island groups.

The Ten Degree Channel is not just a trivia point; it matters for understanding the geography of India's island territories. It is a shipping route, and its position along a line of latitude makes it easy to locate on a map. Once you remember that the Andamans sit north of the 10° parallel and the Nicobars sit south of it, the answer becomes a matter of simple logic rather than rote memorisation.