The Lakshadweep islands lie scattered in the Arabian Sea about 225 to 450 km from the Kerala Coast. They comprise 12 atolls, 3 reefs, 5 submerged banks with a total land area of 32 km2, and useable land area of 26 km2. Lakshadweep is considered the smallest Union Territory of India with a population of 60,595 persons in 2001. However considering its lagoon area of 4200 km2, 20,000 km2 of territorial waters and about 4,00,000 km2 out of the 8,59, 992 km2 of Exclusive Economic Zone of the west coast of India, Lakshadweep is a large territory.