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British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT)

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Contents:

• Country overview
• Philately at British Indian Ocean Territory
• Official stamps of British Indian Ocean Territory related to Paleontology
• References

British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) lies about 1770 km east of the Seychelles. The islands have a land area of only 60 sq
km and 698 km of coastline. Diego Garcia, the largest and most southerly island, is 44 sq km. The climate is hot, humid and moderated by trade winds. The terrain is flat and low and most areas do not exceed two metres above sea level.
The Chagos islands were first discovered, uninhabited, in the 16th century. The French assumed sovereignty in the late 18th century and began to exploit them for copra, originally employing slave labour. Under the treaty of Paris in 1814, France ceded to Britain Mauritius and its dependencies, which comprised Seychelles and the Chagos Archipelago. The Chagos islands were detached to become part of the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965.
Diego Garcia has approx. 3,000 inhabitants, mainly UK and US military personnel and civilians, and Filipino and Mauritian civilians. ^[R1]

The BIOT Post Office is managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government and is operated on its behalf by Sure (Diego Garcia) Limited. The Post Office provides outbound postal services from the island of Diego Garcia. Incoming mail is handled by both the US Postal Service and the British Forces Post Office.  ^[R2]   



Official stamps of British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) related to Paleontology: Charles Darwin