Agaléga () is a dependency of Mauritius which consists of two outer islands located in the Indian Ocean, about North of Mauritius Island. Under the Constitution of Mauritius, Agaléga is a constituent island of the Republic of Mauritius. Although the island has been ceded to India on a basis that has not yet been revealed but appears to be military, it still remains, as explicitly defined by the Constitution of Mauritius, part of the Sovereignty of Mauritius, together with the following islands “Rodrigues, Tromelin, Cargados Carajos (Saint Brandon), Chagos Archipelago (…) Diego Garcia and other islands included in the State of Mauritius”. Similarly to other Mauritian islands such as St. Brandon, Agaléga is run directly by the Prime Minister of Mauritius himself through the Prime Minister's Office to the Outer Island Development Corporation (OIDC). The population of the islands in 2018 was 274 down from 289 in July 2011 amidst reports in the press that pregnant Agalegans are allegedly not allowed to give birth in Agalega, possibly to avoid another Chagos-type problem in the future given that there are more than 200 Indian builders on site. The islands have a total area of . The North island is long and wide, while the South island is long and wide. The North Island is home to the islands' airstrip and the capital Vingt-Cinq. The islands are known for their production of coconuts which was their main industry and, also, for the Agalega day gecko. A 2015 memorandum of understanding on India–Mauritius military cooperation envisaged developing the Agaléga islands for an Indian military base. Local residents vocally opposed construction of the base as being a threat to local employment, self-determination, creole language (Agalega Creole), creole culture and Mauritian sovereignty. Etymology There are three different explanations for the name Agaléga. One hypothesis is that the Portuguese explorer, Dom Pedro Mascarenhas, named Agaléga and the island of Sainte Marie (off the east coast of Madagascar) in honour of his two sailboats, the "" and the "" in 1512, when he discovered Mauritius and Réunion Island. Another, more probable explanation relates to the Galician explorer João da Nova, who discovered the islands in 1501 while working for the Portuguese. João was popularly known by his sailors as , according to Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès' (Volume 38, page 88). is the Galician/Portuguese word for someone from Galicia, North West Spain, and "Agalega", is derived from the feminine