India · Andaman Islands
Havelock Island
Main Andaman dive season with the best mix of visibility and weather.
Havelock Island (now Swaraj Dweep) is the diving hub of India's Andamans — a remote archipelago in the Bay of Bengal with healthy reefs, manta encounters in season, and a backpacker-island atmosphere. India's best diving by a long way.
Good season
December–April is the main season with the calmest seas and best viz. May–November is monsoon.
Trip duration
5–7 nights on Havelock; longer to combine with Neil Island and Port Blair.
Dive style
Boat diving to walls and pinnacles; mild-to-moderate current.
Dive level
Open Water; Advanced for the deeper pinnacles.
Reef health
What you’ll actually findSome loss since the 2010s, but the reef still has plenty to dive. Pick depth and shoulder-season carefully.
Coral reef health
How is this calculated?On current trend, no live coral by ~2104. Losing about 0.4% cover per year — roughly 80 years of reef left to see if nothing changes.
Heat stress right now
Mild warmth. Worth watching — no bleaching yet.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch · updated May 2026 · 4 °C-week heat dose
What to expect on a dive
Remote archipelago. Cover has held up better than most South Asian reefs due to limited tourism.
Sources, methodology, and the raw numbers
Raw observed numbers
- Coral cover: 32% (survey Sep 2024, GCRMN South Asia transect)
- Bleached: 11%
- Recent mortality: 3%
- South Asian reef — observed condition reflects the slow loss regional pattern.
Raw thermal numbers
- NOAA CRW alert level: Watch
- Degree Heating Weeks: 4 °C-wk
- SST anomaly: +0.4 °C
How we summarise this
Observed coral cover, bleaching, and mortality come from named in-situ surveys with a stated date and method — they describe one snapshot of one reef and do not extrapolate to neighbouring sites. Current thermal stress is satellite-derived from NOAA Coral Reef Watch at ~5 km resolution; it indicates risk, not observed coral damage. We deliberately separate observed condition, current thermal stress, and projection — and we never publish a projection without a documented model and uncertainty.
Sources
- Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network — GCRMN / ICRI
- NOAA Coral Reef Watch — U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program — Australian Institute of Marine Science
- Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment — AGRRA Program / Perry Institute for Marine Science
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program — NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
- Reef Check — Reef Check Foundation
- NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch — NOAA NESDIS / STAR
- Allen Coral Atlas — Arizona State University Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority — Australian Government
- International Coral Reef Initiative — ICRI Secretariat
- Reef Life Survey — Reef Life Survey Foundation
- NASA PO.DAAC — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Caltech
- Copernicus Marine Service — Mercator Ocean International for the European Union
- NASA Ocean Color (OB.DAAC) — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Ocean Biology Processing Group
- Argo float network — International Argo Program / UCSD
- CoralWatch — University of Queensland
- IMOS / AODN — Integrated Marine Observing System / Australian Ocean Data Network
- WRI Reefs at Risk Revisited — World Resources Institute
- Ocean Health Index — OHI partnership (Conservation International + UCSB + NCEAS)
- IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere (SROCC) — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- GOA-ON — Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network — GOA-ON Secretariat + IOC-UNESCO
- HAEDAT — Harmful Algae Event Database — IOC-UNESCO Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms
- NCEI Marine Microplastics — NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
Reef condition changes year to year. If you visit, consider supporting responsible-travel and conservation operators on the ground.
Pressure on this reef
Protection · fishing · what you can doProtected-area status
Multi-use MPAInside a designated MPA that permits regulated fishing and other uses. Worth checking which zones at this location are no-take.
Fishing pressure
High fishing pressureDominant pressures
- industrial fishing
- small-scale overfishing
- limited enforcement
- warming
1 Green Fins-verified operator known at this location.
What you can do
Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park covers Wandoor reefs. Indian Ocean / East African coast has formal MPAs on paper but enforcement is patchy. Tip local guides directly; support community-conservancy diving where available.
Protection status sourced from Protected Planet / WDPA and refined with Marine Protection Atlas. Fishing pressure proxy is Global Fishing Watch AIS data. See the methodology for what these sources can and can’t prove.
Dive sites here
2 curated
Johnny's Gorge
Open-water deep dive 18-19 km east of Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep), named for the divemaster who first explored it. The bottom sits betwee…

Dixon's Pinnacle
Three rock pinnacles rise from a 34 m floor to within 15-16 m of the surface roughly 19 km east of Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep), a short h…
Gear
What to bringSite-specific add-ons
Some dive sites here call for extra gear. Check the individual site page for full context.
- Dive light or torch — At 30-34 m, ambient light drops sharply and the overhangs where sharks rest are dim — a primary torch helps with shark ID and gorgonian colour. · Johnny's Gorge
- Nitrox cert + EAN32 fills — Bottom time at 28-30 m on air is short; EAN32 stretches no-deco limits and is offered by all Havelock operators with advance booking. · Johnny's Gorge
What divers say
“India's diving secret. Healthy reefs, almost no other divers, and the food is fantastic.”