Andaman Islands Diving: Havelock, Neil, Seasons, Permits and Courses

Where the Andaman Islands are and how divers get there

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands sit between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. A Zoological Survey of India paper counts 572 islands in the chain, lying between 6° and 14° N. The diving most visitors do is in the south of the Andaman group, around the capital and two islands north east of it.

Names changed recently, and both versions are still in use. Havelock Island was renamed Swaraj Dweep and Neil Island became Shaheed Dweep in December 2018. Port Blair was renamed Sri Vijaya Puram on 13 September 2024, though its airport is still Veer Savarkar International Airport. PADI lists daily flights there from Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

From the airport you continue by boat. Government ferries are run by the Directorate of Shipping Services from Phoenix Bay jetty; Go2Andaman times them at about 2.5-3 hours to Havelock and 1.5-2 hours to Neil, with tickets released on the DSS e-ticketing site two days before departure. Private catamarans such as Makruzz and Nautika also run between Port Blair, Havelock's Govind Nagar jetty and Neil, and PADI puts the crossing at about 2 hours. Havelock lies about 41 km north east of Port Blair. For other trips in the region, see our destination guides.

Havelock, Neil and Port Blair dive sites by depth and level

Havelock has the most dive centres and the widest range of sites. PADI counts over 20, with wrecks, gorges, pinnacles and walls. The beginner reefs sit close to shore at 5-16 m, and the sites that bring experienced divers back, Dixon's Pinnacle, Johnny's Gorge and Jackson's Bar, start in the 20s and run past 30 m. That puts them beyond an Open Water card's training depth.

Neil is smaller and quieter, with its own set of reefs. ScubaLov lists 13 Neil sites, including Junction at 28-34 m with strong eastward current and Hathi Mundi, which starts at 27 m and is kept for Advanced and Deep certified divers. Near Port Blair, North Bay is a shallow reef that Seahawks Scuba puts at 2-8 m and 20-30 minutes by boat from the city's jetties. It is used mainly for first dives by people who are not going to Havelock.

Depths and levels below are what the operators publish. They disagree slightly, so the table gives the source for each figure.

Best time for scuba diving in the Andamans, and water temperature

October to May is the diving season, with December to March as the peak. That is PADI's guidance for Havelock, and it gives visibility of 15-30 m in those months. June to September is the southwest monsoon, when PADI says stronger winds and rough seas limit operations, though some centres dive when conditions allow.

The monsoon reaches the islands before mainland India. An India Meteorological Department paper in Mausam (2019) gives normal arrival dates of 18 May over the Nicobars and 21 May over the Andamans, with a standard deviation of 5-6 days, and describes two rainy seasons: the southwest monsoon from mid-May to the end of September, and the northeast monsoon from November to January. So late May can already be wet and windy, and early November can bring showers even inside the season.

The water stays warm: PADI gives 26-29°C year round. Ferries matter as much as dive boats in rough weather, so leave a spare day before your flight out.

Scuba diving in the Andamans for non-swimmers: what a try dive really is

A try dive is a supervised experience, not a qualification, and the limits are set by the training agency. PADI's Discover Scuba Diving is for ages 10 and up, with an optional open water dive to a maximum of 12 m (40 ft), and you fill in a medical questionnaire first. PADI says you do not need to be a strong swimmer but should be comfortable in the water and able to stay at the surface. SSI's Try Scuba standard allows ages 8 and up in a pool or confined water no deeper than 5 m.

Many Andaman operators sell try dives to non-swimmers. Seahawks Scuba, for example, advertises a 1:1 ratio with a guide for non-swimmers at North Bay. That can work in calm, shallow water, but it puts all of your safety on one person. A 2016 report by Ahmed and Roy on decompression sickness cases treated in Port Blair found that most of the nine patients were Discover Scuba divers, not certified divers. A try dive is not risk free, and the depth limit matters.

Ask before you pay:

• Which agency's programme is this, and what is the maximum depth?
• How many participants per instructor or guide, and is the guide an instructor?
• Will I do skills in shallow water first, and who decides if I am not ready?
• Is there emergency oxygen on the boat?
• If I want to continue, does this dive count toward an Open Water course? PADI says it can, if arranged in advance.

Taking an Open Water course on Havelock or Neil

Havelock is the main place in India where people learn to dive. PADI says the island has several PADI 5 Star IDC centres, with courses up to instructor level, and SSI schools operate there too. The certificate comes from the training agency, not the dive centre, so it is recognised wherever that agency is. Our PADI, SSI and CMAS comparison explains how the cards differ.

The entry level course has the same core in every agency. SSI's Open Water Diver needs a minimum age of 10, a water fitness evaluation with a swim and a survival float, and four open water dives, with a training depth of 18 m (60 ft). PADI says its course can be finished in 2-4 days. Unlike a try dive, a full course does require you to swim, so a non-swimmer should learn that first.

The beginner reefs around Havelock and Neil, at 5-16 m, suit training dives. If you want to see Dixon's Pinnacle or Johnny's Gorge on the same trip, plan for an Advanced course afterwards because both start deeper than 18 m.

Marine life and the state of the reefs

The islands have India's most diverse reefs. Zoological Survey of India researchers (Mondal, Raghunathan and Venkataraman, 2014) say they hold more than 400 species of reef-building (scleractinian) coral. A 2024 survey of Havelock reefs by Kaliyamoorthy and colleagues recorded 80 live coral species at three sites, and its literature review cites earlier counts of 600 finfish species for the islands. Live coral cover varied widely between those sites: 37.7% along the transects at Elephant Beach against 14% at Radhanagar Beach.

On the dives themselves PADI lists sharks, manta rays, turtles, dugongs and barracuda, and the operator site descriptions add white-tip reef sharks at Johnny's Gorge and schools of barracuda and snapper at Dixon's Pinnacle. Treat dugongs and mantas as occasional, not expected.

Heat stress has hit these reefs before. The same ZSI paper recorded sea temperatures rising from 28°C to 31.7°C between April and July 2010, with about 80% of corals bleached, and measured recovery of up to about 82% over the following year. The 2004 tsunami did less damage on Havelock than elsewhere; Wikipedia notes no recorded deaths on the island.

Permits for foreign visitors and marine park rules

Most foreign tourists no longer need a Restricted Area Permit (RAP) for Havelock, Neil and the other main tourist islands. The RAP is notified under the Foreigners (Restricted Areas) Order, 1963. In August 2018 the Home Ministry removed 29 inhabited islands, Havelock and Neil among them, from the RAP regime, as The Week reported at the time. That notice ran until 31 December 2022. The government pages that would confirm the current status did not load for us; Barefoot, a Havelock operator, still describes the RAP as relaxed for foreign nationals, PIO and OCI holders.

Exceptions apply. Citizens of Afghanistan, China and Pakistan, and foreign nationals of those origins, still need prior permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs, and Myanmar citizens need it for Mayabunder and Diglipur. Barefoot warns that people in these groups who arrive without written permission are sent back to the mainland.

Some dive sites near Port Blair are inside Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park at Wandoor, created in 1983 and covering 281.5 km² and 17 islands, including Jolly Buoy and Red Skin. It is managed by the islands' forest department, and collecting coral or shells is banned in protected sites such as North Bay. Park charges and rules change, so ask your operator whether entry fees are included and check the Andaman and Nicobar Administration's current notices before you travel.

Recompression chamber, operator choice, insurance and flying home

There is one working chamber. Ahmed and Roy report that the Naval Diving Unit in Port Blair has the only active decompression chamber in the islands. Civilian divers are first seen at G.B. Pant Hospital in Port Blair and referred to the Navy's Clearance Diving Unit when needed. From Havelock or Neil that means a boat crossing first, so oxygen on the dive boat and a centre with an evacuation plan matter.

Warning signs when choosing a centre: no medical questionnaire, a try dive taken past 12 m, one guide for a large group of first-timers, no oxygen kit on board, or pressure to dive in poor weather. Our guide on how to choose a dive centre has the full checklist.

Check that your insurance covers diving and evacuation; what dive insurance covers explains what to look for. In an emergency DAN says to call local medical services first, then its hotline on +1-919-684-9111, staffed 24 hours a day.

Most trips end with a flight from Port Blair. DAN recommends at least 12 hours after a single no-decompression dive and at least 18 hours after several days of repetitive diving. Enter your last dive in our flying after diving calculator before you book the return flight, and remember the ferry back adds hours of its own.