Marine National Park, Jamnagar

Marine national Park near Jamnagar, Gujarat was a must in our 25 days road trip to Gujarat which started from New Delhi. We had read so much about the biodiversity and about the walk in the national park sea bed that we decided to stay in Jamnagar one extra day reserved for the park only.

Marine National Park is a part of Marine Wildlife sanctuary which stretches from Okha to Jamnagar along the coast in the Gulf of Kutch. It is a 110 sq km area just off the coast near Jamnagar and consists of 42 islands; most of them are surrounded by reef. The best known is the Pirotan Island. There are two ways to go to the national park. One is to take a boat from the Bedi port or Nava port jetty in Jamnagar to go to Pirotan island and then explore the park or take the boat and visit the whole park on boat and getting off at places to explore the sea bed and reef. This is possible only during high tide and one requires permission and payment of fee to the forest department to visit the park which you can obtain from the forest department at the gate or from Jamnagar.

The other way is to go to Narara reef near Vadinar village close to Essar refinery and then take a guide after paying the park fee at the forest department counter and just walk into the national park. You can walk up to 4 to 5 Km in shallow waters and can see the big oil tankers offloading their oil and waiting for high tide to set sail. This side of park is accessible only in low tide and, therefore, make sure about the timing of low and high tide and reach there about an hour earlier. Tide timings can also be obtained from port authorities or even from forest department.

The marine national park is full of marine wealth, mangrove, coral reef, sea grass, sea weed, sponges, sea turtles, fishes, finless dolphins, dungong, corals and a wide variety of birds. Best time to visit is from Oct to March. While going to Pirotan Island is relatively easy as one has to take a boat from jetty after taking permission from the forest department but going to Narora reef is a travel of about 60 Km from Jamnagar. One has to take the highway to Dwarka and just before Essar Refinery take a right turn for Vadinar Village. This turn is about 40 Km from Jamnagar. Another 20 Km after following road signs and some on dirt road and seeing flocks of flamingos you reach the gate of the park. On the left side you have the forest department office. Take a guide from here and after paying the park fee you can park your vehicle in the adequate parking space and a small refreshment stall. Preferably wear shorts or loose pants which can be rolled up with floaters to walk on reef as you will be walking on the sea bed with water reaching up to knee level at times. Carry eatables as after walk you feel hungry and the stall has small snacks and tea only.  Carry water to drink, sun glasses and a cap as when sun comes up one needs a cap and the dark glasses to save the eyes from reflection from sea water and a towel with a change of clothes and not to mention your camera and binoculars.

There is nothing spectacular about the marine national park which one can find in other national parks like seeing a lion in Gir forest or seeing a tiger in Ranthambore about which you can talk about. If you expect to see something spectacular, then this is not a park for you. This national park is totally unique and different than others. It is only here where you can walk in the park see the marine life and coral reef at a very close range and enjoy walking on the sea bed which you cannot do in other national parks. It is good education for children to see things close by and know about the marine life, flora and fauna and see the oil tankers offloading their cargo.

We stayed in Jamnagar and took our SUV to the Narora reef in the morning reaching there by 0600 hrs and returned by 1400 hrs only. It s advisable to stay in Jamnagar as it has good hotels for all budgets, taxis and a variety of food. From here you can go to both the places but unless you are a serious wildlife enthusiast then you should choose one of the two places only depending upon whether you like boat ride or car ride and walking. One can also take a taxi from Jamnagar but book it in advance or take a bus and local transport to reach Vadinar village.

The roads of Gujarat are good and you enjoy driving on them with national highways being minimum four lane and good surface with minimal toll but there are no toilet facilities on the highways and no eating places on the highways except near towns but the signboards are bilingual so you can find your ways except in cities or state highways where they are only in Gujarati. State highways are also good unless they are being repaired but the signs are all on Gujarati on state highways so do not forget to carry and use your satellite based GPS to find the right way and please do not bank upon tower based GPS as in Jamnagar in front of our hotel it gave an error of 800 meters and outside city it is useless.  The only other state we found such good roads was MP with Rajasthan coming next. So while traveling on roads please carry eatables unless you are fond of Gujarati snacks which can be found near cities or villages only. It was surprising that in the land of Amul , we could not find one single booth selling Amul milk or other milk products, probably they are all exported out of the state but in Jamnagar you can get tasty and delicious local made ice cream and very good Gujarati and other types of food.