Honnavar, Dec 30: Around a dozen civilians, who had visited Basavaraja Durga Island, off the Honnavar coast in Uttara Kannada district, without permit, were sent back by the Coast Guard personnel yesterday.
Located in the Arabian Sea, the uninhabited island has a total area of 19 hectares and an elevation of 45 to 50m. There are a number of fresh water wells. The island can be reached by boat, fishing trawlers or canoe (although canoe is not recommended for visitors) by a sail upstream on river sharavati. The island lies 4km from Honnavar, 3km from Sharavati Bay and just 1km from Pavinakurva village (an island which also has a beach), and 700 meters from Taribagilu village, another beach island. The trip takes about 30 to 45 Minutes from Honnavar and 5 to 10 Minutes from Taribagilu village by sail.
A communiqué from Coast Guard district headquarters, Mangaluru, said the group was ferried to the island in a small boat, Samudra Raj, which did not have any registration number and valid documents. Just two crew members had ferried the 12 civilians to the island without safety gear such as life jackets, the note said.
The visit was noticed by personnel on board Coast Guard ship Kasturba Gandhi which was on patrol during exercise ‘Sajag’. The personnel spoke to group member Deepak Naik. Mr. Naik, a native of Honnavar, works in Bengaluru and was visiting his home town during the holidays and had reached the island with the help of local fishermen.
Coast Guard Commander DIG S.S. Dasila said that anyone venturing into the sea needs to obtain permit from the Tourism Department, the district administration or the local police.
Comments
Add new comment