Entertainment
Andaman limestone caves: Enchanting journey into the unknown (Travelogue)
By Milinda Ghosh Roy
Port Blair, Dec 7 (IANS) Beckoning tourists with their intricate mineral formations amid the tropical wilderness of the Baratang island, the age-old limestone caves here testify to the variety of the Andaman archipelago, otherwise famed for its pristine beaches, fascinating coral reef, historical monuments and adventure sports.
Baratang lies around 100 kilometres north of Port Blair, the capital, and around 1,300 kilometers from the Indian mainland.
A part of the North and Middle Andaman administrative district, Baratang too has beautiful beaches, mangrove creeks and mud-volcanoes — but the limestone caves could be rated as the most awe-inspiring of the island’s offerings.
While the massive sedimentary limestone formations inside the dark, damp caves enchant both researchers and ordinary tourists, the journey to the spot adds to the enjoyment.
It includes a speedboat ride on a beautiful sea channel followed by a one-and-a-half kilometre trek through the mesmerising tropical forest.
Visitors arriving from Port Blair also get to pass through the famed Jarawa Tribal Reserve. The vehicles, however, are only allowed to pass through the region in a convoy, at specific intervals — and there is strictly no stopping or clicking of pictures.
Along the way, you may catch the glimpse of one or two Jarawa hunters, scantily clad in red cloths or, if lucky, even see a whole group of children passing through the forest.
The forest leads to the Baratang jetty where the visitors hop on to speed boats and enjoy a breathtaking ride through a dense mangrove forest. The boat enters a narrower creek with a canopy of mangrove trees above. The area is dark even in the afternoon as light barely penetrates the thick leaves of Hental, Sundari, Buttonwood and black mangrove trees.
The boatmen repeatedly caution the visitors not to put their hand into the water as the creeks are infested with salt-water crocodiles.
The speed boats drop people to the Nayadera Jetty. One has to then trek through the uneven hilly slopes amid the tropical forest to reach one of the limestone caves.
The cave, conical in shape, has a relatively broad entrance but gets increasingly narrower and darker inside. Looking up at the roof, one sees just two small holes that provide light and oxygen to the entire cave.
The cave is said to have surfaced from the bottom of the sea after an earthquake. The guides point out certain limestone rocks that are chemically reacting with carbon dioxide to form various curious designs on the roof and floor of the cave.
The cave floor is particularly damp and slippery. In a relatively wider part inside the cave, stalactites hang from the ceiling like chandeliers while stalagmite formations on the floor take shapes like a flower bouquet or elephant’s head. At some places, the overhead and ground formations have met to form pillars.
After a certain point, the path inside the cave has been barricaded to restrict visitors from venturing further as the rocks ahead are relatively unstable.
Right outside the cave, there a number of small shops where locals sell mangoes sprinkled with rock salt and coconut water — just what you need after the fairly strenuous trek.
(Milinda Ghosh Roy visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the invitation of the Press Information Bureau. He can be contacted at milinda.r@ians.in)
–IANS
mgr/ssp/vm/sac
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
Content provided by Adverloom
Cheers and Cheers: Barzilla’s Joyful Ode to Inclusivity and Celebration
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online
What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
IPL 20202 UPDATE: KXIP vs MI IPL Dream11 Team Prediction for Today Match, Update Point Table of all Team.
In a Live debate AAP leader Syed Asad Abbas hurls abuses to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
‘India’s Most Wanted’ trailer out Arjun Kapoor on hunt of Osama-Bin-Laden
Time to move on: Sonakshi on Shatrughan’s joining Congress
