Mauritius's remote copra dependency — two coral islands 1,100km north with a coconut economy and no tourist infrastructure
Agaléga is an outer dependency of Mauritius consisting of two low coral islands — North Island and South Island, connected by a sandbank at low tide — lying 1,122km north of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The islands are administered by Mauritius but feel entirely self-contained: the roughly 300 permanent residents cultivate coconuts for copra (dried coconut flesh for oil production), fish the surrounding reef, and receive supply ships every few months. There is no hotel, no regular air service, and no conventional tourism. Agaléga is included here as a geographic curiosity rather than a trav…
Agaléga was uninhabited at European contact and was first used as a coconut plantation by French colonists in the late 18th century. The enslaved workers brought to work the copra plantations became the ancestors of the current population — a history that makes Agaléga an extension of the Indian Ocean slave plantation economy that also shaped Mauritius, Réunion, and the Seychelles. Mauritius administered Agaléga after independence in 1968. In 2015, Mauritius and India signed a framework agreement for India to upgrade Agaléga's airstrip and wharf — a development with obvious strategic value fo…