Nantha Kyun


Nantha Kyun is an island off the coast of Rakhine State, Burma. Due to the strong smell emitted by the island's mud volcano, the island was known to the British Empire during the British rule in Burma as Foul Island. This was the site of Operation Boston, a joint US-UK reconnaissance mission overseen by Lord Mountbatten and carried out by Operational Group Command and OSS Detachment 404 during World War II.

Geography

The island is long and wide. It is located roughly to the southwest of the Maw Yon headland in the Rakhine coast.
Nantha Kyun rises to a height of and has a large active mud volcano in the middle. It is thickly wooded except on its western shores where the terrain is scarred between the crater and the shoreline.

Kyun Nantha Marine National Park

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation designated 23,000 acres in Gwa Township, Thandwe District, Rakhine State, as the "Kyun Nantha Marine National Park" for biodiversity conservation. This designation, based on the Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Areas Law of 2018, was announced in Notification No. 50/2024 and took effect on 12 June 2024.

Nearby islands