On May 2, 2026, the Andaman & Nicobar Administration coordinated 200+ military and government personnel — Navy, Police, Forest Department, Coast Guard — to unfurl a 2,400-square-metre Tricolour underwater at Havelock Island and obtain a Guinness certificate, while Congress filed objections over what is happening above the waterline on the same islands.
Lieutenant Governor D.K. Joshi presided over the operation at Radhanagar Beach, Swaraj Dweep (Havelock Island) on May 2, 2026: 200+ divers drawn from the Indian Navy, Andaman Police, Forest Department, and Coast Guard unfurled a 60-metre by 40-metre Tricolour underwater, achieving what Guinness World Records certified as the world's largest underwater national flag. A Guinness adjudicator was specifically flown to the islands for the occasion. Three teenagers aged 14–16 also participated. On the same day, the Congress party attacked the administration over the Great Nicobar Island mega-project — a Rs 72,000-crore development plan involving a transshipment port and air base on an ecologically sensitive island that serves as a primary leatherback sea turtle nesting site. The Andaman & Nicobar Administration, governing 572 islands with a total land area smaller than Goa, has now demonstrated an impressive capacity to coordinate the Indian Navy, Forest Department, Police, and Coast Guard in simultaneous operations — specifically for the purpose of flying a very large flag underwater.