Most visitors to the Andaman Islands arrive fantasizing about white beaches and blue waters, but few are aware that beneath these blue oceans lies something much more remarkable invisible coral gardens that scientists are just starting to explore. Uncharted reefs quietly thrive off the shores of Neil Island (Shaheed Dweep) and Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep), out of reach for every-day tourists but filled with life.
Coral reefs are also referred to as the “rainforests of the sea”, and rightfully so. One reef alone has thousands of species of marine life including fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and tiny organisms. These secret gardens along Neil and Havelock are even more interesting because they are mostly unmapped. Marine biologists feel that such unscathed reefs could have new coral species or genetic variations that can contribute to climate resilience.
What is “invisible” is science, not magic. Most are buried deeper than the typical snorkeling depth, hidden by tidal flows and ocean currents. Their inaccessibility has preserved them from excessive tourism, affording scientists the unusual chance to explore how corals flourish in low-disturbance environments.
The locals refer to such reefs as “glowing” during nighttime. It’s not mythology it’s bioluminescence. Microscopic plankton and coral polyps light up if disturbed, producing the shimmering glow of moonlit water. For scientists, the glow is more than a holiday treat as it’s a lead to investigating symbiotic relationships between corals and microbes that are essential to understanding how reefs adapt to warming seas.
The Andaman reefs, as those everywhere else in the world, are threatened by coral bleaching. As sea temperatures rise, corals push out the algae (zooxanthellae) that provide them both color and nutrients and turn a ghostly white. The secret gardens of Neil and Havelock could have secrets for why some corals resist bleaching more than others. These places need to be protected not only for biodiversity, but for coastal protection, fisheries, and even for medical breakthroughs.
For scuba divers, finding these hidden gardens is a journey. For scientists, though, it’s an invitation to weigh exploration against protection. Various dive schools today cooperate with sea researchers, taking environmentally aware travelers to specially chosen reef sites while maintaining a low human footprint. Each dive becomes a source of recreation as well as reef monitoring and education.
The attraction of Neil and Havelock’s coral gardens is their enigma. They are not social media-famous locations, nor popular snorkeling areas. They are quiet repositories of nature’s imagination, with lessons for science and for man. Going there responsibly is to be a part of a far greater narrative than that of tourism, the narrative of how we learn to coexist with ecosystems that have flourished for millions of years under the ocean.
So, the next time you step on Neil or Havelock sands, recall just a few meters beneath, another world exists, hidden from sight, reminding us that wonder, and science are always in plain sight.