New Moore Island
| Disputed island | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Location | Bay of Bengal |
| Coordinates | 21°37′00″N 89°08′30″E / 21.61667°N 89.14167°ECoordinates: 21°37′00″N 89°08′30″E / 21.61667°N 89.14167°E |
| Administered by | |
| India | |
| Claimed by | |
| Earlier claimed by Bangladesh | |
| India | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | None |
South Talpatti or New Moore, was a small uninhabited offshore sandbar island in the Bay of Bengal, off the coast of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta region. It emerged in the Bay of Bengal in the aftermath of the Bhola cyclone in 1970, and disappeared at some later point.
Although the island was uninhabited and there were no permanent settlements or stations located on it, both India and Bangladesh claimed sovereignty over it because of speculation over the existence of oil and natural gas in the region. The issue of sovereignty was also a part of the larger dispute over the Radcliffe Award methodology of settling the maritime boundary between the two nations. The matter was resolved on 7 July 2014, when the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) delivered a verdict in the "Bay of Bengal maritime boundary arbitration between Bangladesh and India" case. The PCA rejected Bangladesh's method of calculating sea boundaries. Although the island is currently beneath sea level, in future it will be under India's jurisdiction, as per the PCA ruling.
The island was situated only two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the mouth of the Hariabhanga River. The emergence of the island was discovered by an American satellite in 1974 that showed it to have an area of 2,500 square metres (27,000 sq ft). Later, various remote sensing surveys showed that the island had expanded gradually to an area of about 10,000 square metres (110,000 sq ft) at low tide, including a number of ordinarily submerged shoals. The highest elevation of the island never exceeded two metres (6 feet 7 inches) above sea level.
The island was located in the coastal, shallow Bay of Bengal immediately south of the international border river, the Hariabhanga, flowing between Satkhira district of Bangladesh and the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India, at 21°37′00″N 89°08′30″E. It is now under the waves of the Bay of Bengal.
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