little-andaman

The Beach thick-knee, also known as the Beach stone-curlew is a large, ground dwelling bird found in the islands of South-east Asia and Australia. They are primarily seen along the beaches, reefs and estuaries and rarely venture even a few meters inland from these habitats. Heavy human activity on beaches in certain areas confine these birds to small offshore islands. From just a faint hope of seeing a beautiful rarity it turned into a wonderful evening spent observing the Beach thick knee and its behaviour....

Little Andaman, also known as the Hut bay, is a quaint little island off the coast of Port Blair. An 8 hour cruise on a ship will get you there. As soon as one lands there and starts driving away from the jetty, the ambience of the place begins to sink in. You begin to notice that there are very few people around and hardly any vehicles on the road. There is just this one long main road lined with small eateries and shops on either side....

The archipelago of Andaman & Nicobar comprises of 572 islands of which 37 are inhabited. Made up of two island groups, the Andaman Islands to the north and the Nicobar Islands to the south, these islands have a tropical rainforest canopy and are very rich in bio-diversity. Over 2200 varieties of plants have been recorded there out of which 200 are endemic and 1300 of them do not occur in mainland India....

Beach thick-knee, also known as the Beach stone-curlew is a large, ground dwelling bird found in the islands of South-east Asia and Australia. Even though it is seen over a widespread area, the bird is considered as a near-threatened species and is quite uncommon across most of its range. It is very vulnerable to human interference, predation and loss of undisturbed coastlines. On my visit to Andaman in Feb last year, this bird was very high on the list to see and photograph....