H.M.S. Viper was the ship Lieutenant Blair used to survey the islands in 1789. Following a storm it was shipwrecked close to the island.
The island was the site of a penal colony and prison built in 1864-7. It was used for incarcerating and executing convicts and political prisoners. Shere Ali Afridi, an Afghan convict was hanged here in 1873 for the assassination of Lord Mayo, the British Viceroy, who had been on an inspection tour of the Andaman Islands. The island and its prison was abandoned following the construction of the Port Blair cellular jail in 1906.
Hilltop Gallows, Viper Island Sanyam Bahga
