ANDAMANS- THE UNDER RATED PARADISE

ANDAMANS- THE UNDER RATED PARADISE

Me and my family were in great dilemma while deciding for a place where we could spent our puja vacation of 2009. Then suddenly my mind flashed to a place in the Indian map which is probably the most isolated part of India i.e, ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS. It is an Indian union territory which is nearer to south east asian nations than the Indian mainland. This small archipelago territory doesn’t strike any chord in the minds of us mainland Indians but still my family gave a go ahead signal for spending our vacation there. Andaman and nicobar’s capital is PORT BLAIR which houses the territoty’s only civilian airport VEER SAVARKAR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. Port blair is connected by air from Chennai and kolkata. Also vessels like MV SWARNA DEEP which operates in high tides between Chennai and port blair can be of service. It takes 2 and a half hours by air and 3 days by sea. The majority of the population is Bengali or tamil origin. The capital is entirely cosmopolitan and almost everybody speaks good HINDI. So tourists will not have any communication problems. The weather is generally cloudy and windy and rain lasts for hardly 10-15 minutes. The A& N CONSISTS OF 576 islands while port blair is located at the SOUTH ANDAMAN ISLANDS. There are lots of economical hotels and restaurants provide every kind of dishes but sea food especially lobster and golden prawn is the island’s gourmet speciality.

Among the places of interest are HAVELOCK ISLAND which is among the top 5 beaches of the country. Just off the coast of port blair is ROSS ISLAND which was touted as the PARIS OF THE EAST. It accommodated an ENGLISH barracks. It is really fascinating to see the way or the style the Englishmen lived on Indian soil before independence. Ross island was captured by Japanese army during 2nd world war. LIMESTONE CAVE AND nature hike in MANGROVE RAIN FOREST in BARATUNGA is an unique experience to enjoy the flora and fauna of this beautiful island. The local boatmen can also take you to uninhabited and isolated island where you can spend hours in complete solitary and bliss enjoying the sights of miles of unspoiled white sands and blissful serene coral beaches. CORAL SPOTTING by snorkeling i.e underwater diving or by glass bottomed boats are a not to miss activity. Finally the greatest attraction is the CELLULAR JAIL- an epitome of tyranny by britishers and valourism of Indian freedom fighters. Coined as the ALCATRAZ OF INDIA or KAALAPANI( black waters) it was one of the most dangerous and alienated prison of the world where Indian revolutionaries like veer savarkar, mahavir singh and hundred others were kept and tortured everyday. There was a gallow where several prisoners were hanged to death. The light and sound show at the cellular jail will leave you spellbound as you will get to know about the dark history of the JAIL. Andamans is also home to many tribes like JARAWA TRIBES who are about 250-300 in number now. Lookswise, they are exactly similar to the African pygmies. They still live in the forest and has little or no contact with outside world. International societies like NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC or SURVIVAL.ORG has declared them as one of the most isolated tribe of the world. Besides all these, port blair is very clean city and offers amazing view of nearby island from the waterfront.

But everything has a flip side and ANDAMANS is no exception. Since the government intervention in the tourism sector of this islands is next to nil, majority of tour is operated by private business. They have formed a sort of cartel as they have associates everywhere starting from hotels to car rentals to ferry service to shops. The buzzword for the entire operation is MISMANAGEMENT. Tourists have been flocking to Andaman in large numbers but handling tourist has been a pain in the neck. One has to wait for hours for a ferry to get from one island to another islands.THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA has put a prohibition of any tourist from interaction with any member of JARAWA TRIBE but still it is done. When any vehicle has to go to baratunga, it has to use ANDAMAN TRUNK ROAD which passes through the JARAWA RESERVE. So always a convoy of vehicles are made and that convoy is escorted by police.

But still, ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS remains as one of the best tropical getaway destinations of India which boasts of unspoiled serene beaches and monuments which speaks of the pre independence culture of India. Like I said it before, this place is the under rated paradise which carves for divine intervention from the government.