For someone who was petrified of water, setting up a scuba diving centre was quite a mean task. But not until he discovered his hidden passion for water. Madhav Reddy, director, Planet Scuba India Pvt. Ltd. was learning to swim at one of his trips to the east coast of Malaysia and the moment he touched the sandy bottoms and looked around, he literally fell head-over-heels in love with the underwater world. “Once we sold the telecom business I was running with my dad, I decided to set up a scuba diving company,” reveals Madhav.
Since then, Madhav has gone diving to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives and many other islands, but feels that Maldives which was the most preferred destination so far, is now giving way to Murudeshwara in Karnataka. "That's why apart from Bengaluru where we run the Planet Scuba and PADI, we recently opened the Netrani Diving at the Sea View Resort in Murudeshwara. It's about 400 km overnight drive from Bengaluru and is the only coast which meets all the diving standards. Also the government of Karnataka is taking notice of the even young politicians are taking to scuba diving with gusto. Hopefully by next month the state will chalk out scuba diving policies which are under way now. There are avid diving enthusiasts from small towns like Hubli, Dharwad and Belgaum, besides of course the big cities," shares Madhav.
Sharing details on how scuba diving community is growing dramatically from eight companies in 2008 to 42 in India. “The film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara has triggered the excitement around scuba diving. The first news report that I had read was while I was studying. Not many people knew about it then. It was on the Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi taking his family for scuba diving to Lakshadweep in the 80s. Rahul, Priyanka and Sonia Gandhi love scuba diving and all of them still go for scuba diving trips,” says Madhav who helps people discover the underwater world and spreads awareness about the marine ecosystem through scuba diving courses.
Elated about running a Save our Sharks campaign, Madhav recalls an adrenalin rush he had at one of his diving adventures, "I was at Maldives, when our boatman announced that there was a whale shark that he spotted. I dived immediately and spotted this 5m long baby whale shark braze against me. Even though they are the biggest fish, they are very gentle in nature and are semi-vegetarian. It was the most thrilling experience. We also unfurled our Indian flag underwater in the Maldives in August this year."
