The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 2 plus 6 letter word BAY OF BENGAL
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
B
A
Y
O
F
B
E
N
G
A
L
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "area of Indian Ocean" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case area of indian ocean = bay of bengal.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.