Our dear friend Priyabrata Patro , well known traveler and writer from Bhubaneswar ( he had served in Koraput a few years back ) was in the Hope Island near kakinada today . We are thankful to Mr.Patro for sharing his experience jusat after returning from the island to the mainland . Having learnt about an island with no drinking water and other basic needs , he wished to visit that land which was in the bay of Bengal at about 14 Kms in waters . He booked a Motor Boat by Paying Rs.4000/- for travelling to and fro from the coast of kakinada . A few college students too wanted to go with him and he was generous enough to allow them to share the boat with them to travel . When he had reached the coast of that little island he had to get down from the boat inside the water which was about 500 metres off from the soil . He walked in the waist deep water to reach the island .
On reaching the island he found that there was a school building . He talked to the teacher there who was staying there to teach no child as all children of the village were studying in the hostel school at kakinada for the lack of basic life support like fresh water .
The village had only one semi saline water well from where the villagers bathed and used for the cattle . They drink water by bringing in jars from the mainland once in a while .
The village was silent as there were only a few families left who lived by catching fish and preserving them as Dry fish . They were used to the saline water condition .
Mr.Patro was surprised to see that dogs were also drinking the saline water from the Sea as there was no other source to get sweet water in the island ;
We are grateful to travelers like Priyabrata Patro because of who we are learning about the hidden regions and life in them .
Here is more information on the island from Wikipaedia
Hope Island (Krachchu Lanka) is a small tadpole shaped Island situated off the coast of Andhra Pradesh near Kakinada, India, in the Bay of Bengal.A relatively young island, it formed in the late 18th century, from the sediment outflow carried by the waters of the Koringa River, a distributary of the Godavari. The sand bars formed have gained permanence due to successive deposition of sand and alluvial silt due to meeting of the low salinity waters of the river meeting the saline waters of the Bay of Bengal.
Here is the Satellite picture of the island
