India

[pelan-pelan]

I read somewhere that India is now starting to come onto the map for diving. Not sure if it was a liveaboard or shore-based. Would that have been the Andaman Islands? I have also seen comments about visibility being poor near the shore - but can't quite see how that could apply to the whole of India.

Any comments about locations, and the type of diving would be much appreciated.

 

[PADI Travel]

The best diving in India is in the Andaman Islands. Remote and only recently opened to tourism, the reefs there are superb. However, you can only realistically dive in the islands by liveaboard, and these have a very limited season. Several depart from Phuket in Thailand rather than India, too. Otherwise, you’ll need to travel in by boat or plane and stay at one of the few dive resorts. If you’re interested in the Andaman Islands, you can read more about diving this archipelago here.

On the other hand, the island of Lakshadweep, which also belongs to India, is very up and coming. This island feels more like the Maldives than anything else and is a surprising change from the hustle and bustle of India. Here you’ll find good visibility and coral atolls. There are only a handful of operators and limited accommodation, but it may be worth the exploratory nature of the trip.

While not as good for diving as the two previously mentioned destinations, you can also find operators who dive from mainland India. Goa has a few, and there are some further south on the western coast.

We hope we could provide some useful information. Good luck and happy diving!

 

[NYCNaiad]

This diver recently joined from India & posted about it here.

 

[flyboy08]

I dove out of GOA when I was teaching in India.....I wasn't to comfortable with the way they operated the dives and dive shop, but I chalked it up to the fact that almost everything else was a clusterfuk as well in India....lol! Although I really enjoyed my extended stay there in a weird sort of way very little to no fish....

 

[eternaljonah]

There are lots of great diving sites in India and many unknown Dive centers, Goa, Pondy, Chidiatapur, and Havelock among other places have very professional and well run Dive centers, some of these places even do Tec diving, Freediving and Nitrox.

 

[champacs]

Given the choice between the Andaman and Lakshadweep islands which do you recommend? It'll be for next March.

 

[eternaljonah]

Andamans has a great amount of Dive centers available and offers great Diving, as well as food and other activities
Lakshadweep has amazing diving but you are more limited and need a agent to get the permission, But the diving is worth it

 

[Ankush Mittal]

It is frankly quite frustrating to see the lack of representation of India on the International Dive scene. With such as massive coast line one would assume we have insane diving.

But just because the diving tourism market hasn't caught on we've not been able to establish an easily accessible set of dive sites.

Here are your dive sites in India:

Andaman Islands
Netrani Island
Goa
Pondicherry
Lakshwadeep


Don't even think about Lakshwadeep for now. Due to it being an important Naval Base for India (similar to Andaman, but its much smaller) permission are tough, especially for foreigners and its literally open for diving for a very small window.

Goa has very few dive sites so I wouldn't make a trip only for diving, if you were stopping over in goa for a few days for a fun holiday you can easily cover most of the decent dive sites in 2 days of diving with 4 dives.

Netrani Islands is something which is coming up south of Goa, about 9 - 10hrs by road if I remember correctly. With decent visibility and a lot of weekend trips being organized by dive shops in and around Goa.

Andaman is the go-to spot for diving in India and the visibility is amazing. Shore diving is limited but used mostly for refresher courses and lessons. Dive sites are all accessed by boats and there is some really good diving here.

Having said that coming to India only for diving would not make any sense, unless you want to do something crazy like volunteer with some ReefWatch programs we have on Andaman. I can get you in touch with them if you wish. I believe they subsidise room and boarding and you can spend a good month or so in helping out to maintain and help the local ecosystem.

There aren't really any liveaboards in India, if you would like to do a liveaboard dive, I would like someone suggested earlier, dive from phuket on a liveaboard which comes close to Andaman. (Point to note is that Andaman Islands is closer to Phuket than to the Mainland India)

You would have to fly to Port Blair from either Chennai or Kolkata, and then take a ferry from the port to Havelock (one of the most famous islands for diving here) there are no International flights to Port Blair as Immigration has to be done on the mainland.

Hope this helps.

I know my thoughts were scattered above, if you have specific questions I can answer, please feel free to ask here or Direct Message.

Cheers, Safe Diving!

I read somewhere that India is now starting to come onto the map for diving. Not sure if it was a liveaboard or shore-based. Would that have been the Andaman Islands? I have also seen comments about visibility being poor near the shore - but can't quite see how that could apply to the whole of India.

Any comments about locations, and the type of diving would be much appreciated.

 

[Ankush Mittal]

Given the choice between the Andaman and Lakshadweep islands which do you recommend? It'll be for next March.

I believe my reply above clears your question as well, but just to point out March is a great time to dive either Lakshwadeep or Andaman.

If you want to consider Lakshwadeep, let me know I will put you in touch with some dive shops on the mainland who organise trips to one of the islands for diving and assist you with everything including permissions etc as the diving has to be done using the guides from the government-owned dive shop only.

Diving in Andaman is much simpler, you can just book your dives directly with one of the many dive shops such as DiveIndia (Havelock), ScubaLuv (Havelock), Lacadives (Chidiya Tapu) and more. They all speak english quite well and your dives should be fun.

 

[scrane]

Dive the Ganges!