DIVEIndia is one of the oldest dive centers in the Andaman archipelago, here in India. It was founded by Vandit Kalia, aka Vinnie, a former management consultant who came to Havelock Island back in 2000, during a sabbatical of sorts from the corporate world. After his trip to Havelock, he was unable to resist the call of the islands and decided to walk away from the corporate rat race to start DIVEIndia in the Andamans in December 2003.

We feel diving should be fun, safe and accessible. Everything we do is based on this. And our primary goal is, as always, to make sure our guests have a great time here. We are not a big corporation, we don't have a fancy PR machine, we don't offer everything under the sun - we focus on one thing only, and we like to think we do it better than anyone else.

Today, we have come a long way from those early days of wooden dunghis for dive boats when connecting to the internet meant plugging a laptop into the phone cable at a public call booth. Today with fleet of customized dive boats, 14-15 dive professionals covering 2 islands, Havelock and Neil, we cater to customers from all over the world.

The flip side of that coin is, like with most remote dive destinations across the world, the number of tourists to the Andamans has increased tremendously. This is a good thing overall, as it helps improve the local economy and provides a better livelihood to the people of the islands. However, increased tourist volumes, especially in developing economies, are accompanied by their own ills: increase in pollution/wastes, degradation of the environment and negative social impact on local culture.

We strongly feel that diving done responsibly can be a powerful way to reconnect people with nature and inculcate the importance of conservation in daily life. Simply by getting more people captivated by the wonders of the ocean!

For starters, as a business we try to make sure our operations are as ecologically sensitive as possible, leaving as low of a carbon footprint as we can in the process.

Nature- wild and free!

DIVEIndia sits on a beach-facing piece of land here in Havelock Island. When we first began, most of the property used to be a coconut plantation. While we still have those towering coconut trees, we have let the native flora take over the rest. Adhering to local laws, we have also let the native littoral forest, that spills onto the beach, remain. Besides, we would not have it any other way! The towering mahua trees and thick belt of green gives us a breathtaking view of our island when our boat touches the beach after a dive trip. It gets us every time. We also much prefer the Andaman endemic bronzeback tree snakes, bay island lizards and emerald geckos, the dawn chorus from the drongos, bulbuls, mangrove whistlers, and the ubiquitous spiders and frogs, ANY DAY, to critter-free environment that come with manicured lawns.

 Air-conditioned al natural

Hand built by local islanders from Andaman, we have different type of rooms for divers, depending on their budget, but none of these rooms are air-conditioned. And we have no plans of changing that. For starters, being beach-side on a very green island, with minimal concrete development and lots of tree cover, means that even in the peak of summer, it is much cooler here, than in cities. We get a cooling sea breeze in the day. And we have designed the rooms to have as much natural cooling as possible. The fan will provide more than enough cooling to let you sleep at night. Besides, research shows that air-conditioning increases your chances of having equalisation problems while diving!

 Full Moon Café, responsible seafood and single-use plastic free

Our restaurant, the Full moon Café , owned & run by Adil and Niamh serves healthy, tasty food in hearty-sized portions and at hours that are designed around the needs of divers. And it is fast developing a reputation as the best restaurant in Havelock.  Seafood at the FMC promises to be fresh, serving only what is available seasonally in the local market, caught and sold by local fishing communities in the Andamans. So, there may be days when you may not get to eat their Peri Peri prawns, perhaps you might want to try the snapper instead!

Most importantly, in spite of the many fold increase in tourism and consumers on the island in the past decade, Full Moon Café still serves filtered water, to anyone who is looking, for FREE.  That is how much we DO NOT want to see plastic in these islands. Needless to say, our juices and shakes taste best without a straw. 

Dive operations- the pursuit of efficiency

Diving around a remote location like the Andaman archipelago, 1600 kilometres away from mainland India offers some of the best in the underwater world, but it also comes with its set of challenges where running the dive operation is concerned. We try to source as much of what we need, locally but everything else needs to be flown or ferried in. Fuel for instance, is very precious in these islands (and the world!). We plan our dive trips such that fuel use is efficient. We also service our dive boats and compressors regularly. On a day to day basis, we try to repurpose the packaging material that keeps coming in.

With love, our ‘desi’ dive crew

Our eclectic group of dive professionals find their origins from across the length and breadth of mainland India. We are happiest to have majority of our dive, boat and hospitality team come from within the Andaman Islands. To cater to the growing demand for diving within India, our crew are fluent in Hindi, Bengali, Karen, Ranchi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and English!

Center for ocean awareness and conservation

Whether we are doing a discover scuba dive, a PADI courses or leading fun dives- love and respect for the ocean are at the heart of everything we do. Our instructors and dive masters are trained to incorporate elements of marine ecology and conservation in all our dive activities. We think it is not only important, it makes everything that much more FUN!

We also have dedicated dive programs towards this like our PADI underwater naturalist course (https://diveindia.com/2017/10/12/underwater-naturalist-specialty-course/). We also design custom made marine education programs for children to suit their school curriculum, age group and time. We love doing these the most.

Starting this year, we launch two long-term research programs that we are most excited about, targeted towards coral reef recovery and marine debris. More on this soon!

All of us here at DIVEIndia – instructors, divemasters, boat crew, office staff and 3 boisterous dodgies – look forward to sharing our passion for diving with you, not just as our customers but also as our friends and fellow ocean ambassadors.

Find us at www.diveindia.com or chat with us @diveindia on instagram and facebook!