Cinque Island Coral Gardens

South Cinque Island lies at the southern tip of the main Andaman chain and is part of the Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park — no anchoring, no collecting, no fishing. The result is a reef that looks like a textbook illustration of Indo-Pacific health: tabulate Acropora tables stacked like bleachers, massive Porites heads at 10 m with visible coral growth rings, and branching staghorn thickets that shelter thousands of glassfish. Turtles — mostly green and hawksbill — are so habituated to divers that they continue feeding as divers pass. The shallow zone between 3 and 12 m is the headline but the site extends down a gradual slope to 28 m where garden eels emerge from sand patches and cleaner wrasse stations attract large Napoleon wrasse and parrotfish. Day trip from Neil Island (Shaheed Dweep) or Havelock; permits are included in the national park fee collected at the jetty.