13+ Islands off coastal Karnataka, only 3 accessible!

Karnataka has a long coastline between Mangaluru and Karwar. The coastline between Kerala Border and Goa border is around 300 kms long. In this post, my point of interest are the small islands located off the coast of Karnataka.

Karnataka has about 13+ islands off the coast. Note: I am only considering islands inside Arabian sea which seem to be of decent size, excluding rocks and minor islands, not counting islands inside rivers- there are several in that category and that warrants a separate post.

But of these 13+ islands only 1 is easily accessible by tourists- St Mary’s island can be visited paying 300 INR per person for boat ride. 

Two other islands are accessible but at a high price. You can stay at Kurumgad island if you are ready to pay about 25000 INR per night per room to Cinator island resort guys. The Netrani island near Mudureshwar is accessible to scuba diving customers- but they only get to dive near the island, not enter it to explore.

Few islands near Karwar are managed by Navy and off limit to general public. Rest of the islands are not accessible to tourists. They are deemed too small or probably no one thought it would be worth offering a boat ride to these islands. If you pay boat operators in Karwar they can take you around few of the islands. Scuba dive, boat ride etc will set you back by several thousand rupees.

#	Name	Nearest town	Accessible to tourists?	Remarks
1	St Mary’s	Malpe/Udupi	Yes
2	Dariya Bahadurgad	Malpe/Udupi	No
3	Basavaraja Durga Island	Honnavara	No
4	Angediva Island	Karwar	No	Under Navy control
5	Kage Gudda	Bhatkal	No
6	Netrani	Murudeshwar	Yes	Scuba diving spot
7	Oyster Rocks	Karwar	No	View from boat only
8	Kurumgad Island	Karwar	Yes	Private resort, 25k per night
9	Madhyalingad	Karwar	No	View from boat only
10	Mogeradugga	Karwar	No
11	Ankani Cheguddu	Ankola	No?
12	Unnamed island	Mattu, Udupi	No
13	Kangiguda Island	Karwar	No

A map reference below if you wish to explore more [link]

I could fly the drone over few of these islands, so you can check the photo/video below to take a look. 

1 St Mary’s Island  - Detailed post here

2. Dariya Bahadurgad  - Read detailed post here

 Other islands I have not visited or flown. 

 For an island to be commercially viable as tourist destination following are needed

• A nearby city or port from where boats can be launched 
• Something attractive in the island to allow tourists to enjoy/relax for a few hours- rocks, beaches, viewpoints, picnic opportunities, selfie spots etc 
• Some assurance that fair number of tourists will visit if a boat service is launched 

Aware of any more islands off the coast of Karnataka? What are your thoughts? Do you think these islands make a good tourism destination? Or better to leave them as it is? Let me know in comments.