It is frankly quite frustrating to see the lack of representation of India on the International Dive scene. With such as massive coast line one would assume we have insane diving.
But just because the diving tourism market hasn't caught on we've not been able to establish an easily accessible set of dive sites.
Here are your dive sites in India:
Andaman Islands
Netrani Island
Goa
Pondicherry
Lakshwadeep
Don't even think about Lakshwadeep for now. Due to it being an important Naval Base for India (similar to Andaman, but its much smaller) permission are tough, especially for foreigners and its literally open for diving for a very small window.
Goa has very few dive sites so I wouldn't make a trip only for diving, if you were stopping over in goa for a few days for a fun holiday you can easily cover most of the decent dive sites in 2 days of diving with 4 dives.
Netrani Islands is something which is coming up south of Goa, about 9 - 10hrs by road if I remember correctly. With decent visibility and a lot of weekend trips being organized by dive shops in and around Goa.
Andaman is the go-to spot for diving in India and the visibility is amazing. Shore diving is limited but used mostly for refresher courses and lessons. Dive sites are all accessed by boats and there is some really good diving here.
Having said that coming to India only for diving would not make any sense, unless you want to do something crazy like volunteer with some ReefWatch programs we have on Andaman. I can get you in touch with them if you wish. I believe they subsidise room and boarding and you can spend a good month or so in helping out to maintain and help the local ecosystem.
There aren't really any liveaboards in India, if you would like to do a liveaboard dive, I would like someone suggested earlier, dive from phuket on a liveaboard which comes close to Andaman. (Point to note is that Andaman Islands is closer to Phuket than to the Mainland India)
You would have to fly to Port Blair from either Chennai or Kolkata, and then take a ferry from the port to Havelock (one of the most famous islands for diving here) there are no International flights to Port Blair as Immigration has to be done on the mainland.
Hope this helps.
I know my thoughts were scattered above, if you have specific questions I can answer, please feel free to ask here or Direct Message.
Cheers, Safe Diving!
I read somewhere that India is now starting to come onto the map for diving. Not sure if it was a liveaboard or shore-based. Would that have been the Andaman Islands? I have also seen comments about visibility being poor near the shore - but can't quite see how that could apply to the whole of India.
Any comments about locations, and the type of diving would be much appreciated.