In the modern 21st century everyone loves a weekend getaway to some exotic place which is far from all the hustling noise of the city, somewhere they can relax without that annoying call from their boss bothering them, and one such way to do this is to find a natural ecosystem underwater where people can explore the true wild beauty of coral reefs and underwater marine life via scuba diving. But with our civilization becoming more and more advanced it is becoming more and more difficult to find any pristine untouched natural location for scuba diving enthusiasts where they can truly experience what they are looking for. Welcome to Calcutta (now known as Kolkata).
Kolkata has been a prime location in India for diving enthusiasts to reach a very natural and pristine spot for scuba diving which has retained it's importance for over a century. Kolkata is a gateway to the truly uncharted waters of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, situated in the extremities of The Bay of Bengal. It is almost a 800km ferry ride to reach the islands, but once you reach there the long ride is truly worth waiting for and anyone can easily count this place as one of the many places they go before they die.
To start out with, one can hire the services of various scuba diving and adventure sports centers in and around Calcutta, the likes of PADI and SSI Centre or even The WB Academy of Adventure Sports, or even the Mahatma Gandhi Marine national Park in the Andaman islands. You can begin your diving trip with the first spot for diving being the beaches beside the Umngot River in Dawki (a neighboring state in India) and then explore the coastline along the Sundarbans and then eventually take the long trip to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The diving spot around the coastlines of Sundarbans is a very unique area where the silt rich sedimentary water of the river flows into The Bay of Bengal which creates such bright contrast that it is one of the few geological features that was visible to the astronauts who landed on the moon. This unique mixing of fresh water silt with the salt water ecosystem attracts many different kinds of marine life and hence the underwater floor is estimated to be teeming with at least fifteen thousand different types of aquatic and marine creatures.
Moving on from these beaches your prime and final spot for diving would be in the islands which have already been declared as a World Heritage Site in 2010 by the UNESCO World Heritage. An estimate of more than 4000 species and subspecies of plants both land and aquatic including the likes of Mangroves, Palms and Epiphytes is spread all over and around the 572 islands which are formed by an underwater mountain range which separates the Bay of Bengal from the immediate Andaman Sea and the Indian Ocean. Bottom line – there is a lot to see and enjoy around here.
Life is very soothing, smothering and smooth here in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as you will not find that crowd or that annoying salesman trying to sell you souvenirs. Apart from the rich underwater corals there is a ton of other stuff that you can do here in these islands. Andaman and Nicobar Islands have earned a reputation of being one of the most richest and diverse marine ecosystems in Asia. You can also have lunch and dinner in one of the many restaurants that the islands have and spend your day more exclusively than anywhere else on this planet.