Making sure that Thanekars don't miss out on the fun of scuba-diving, since 1983, is the city-based organisation Thane Scuba Diving Club.
The word Scuba means Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. However, in today's context, it is a form of underwater sport in which a diver uses a scuba gear to breathe underwater for commercial, industrial reasons or for exploring the underwater flora and fauna.
The Thane Scuba Diving Club was formed by Thane residents Dr Vishwas Sapatnekar, Vijay Patwardhan, NG Patwardhan and Mahesh Rajderkar. Elaborating on the objective behind it, Mahesh said, "The Thane Scuba Diving Club, one-of-its-kind in the city, aimed at introducing and promoting scuba diving."
The chief instructor at the club, Vijay has helped police recover RDX in 1993 from the bottom of Nagla Bunder and also helped find smuggled goods and drowned bodies from the bottom of water on various occasions. Vijay has an American Canadian Underwater Certification Instructor Trainer Evaluator Certification (the highest level in the scuba diving).
"Though in India, scuba diving is yet to become a recognised sport, one can definitely explore the underwater world along the coastline of India. There is an increasing scope for scuba diving as a career option for commercial as well industrial purposes. In fact, the coastline could be developed as a scuba diving hub for promoting tourism," said Vijay.
The Thane Scuba Diving Club has been imparting training from basic to advanced and instructor level with a no profit motive and has trained over 350 students.
The achievements
Vijay has been of help to the authorities for:
Recovering 2,680 kg of RDX and gelatin from Nagla Bunder, a creek near Thane in April 1993
Recovering a truck containing a cache of smuggled goods from the Bhiwandi Creek in January 1995
Recovering a dead body trapped in a glider plane submerged underwater in a dam near Shahapur District near Thane in April 2000
Copyright 2010 Diligent Media Corporation Ltd., DNA (Daily News & Analysis) All Rights Reserved
Source Citation
"Org plunges to teach locals to dive; Thane Scuba Diving Club has promoted scuba diving since 1983." DNA [Daily News & Analysis] 26 May 2010. General OneFile. Web. 27 May 2010.
Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A227335553&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=22054_acld&version=1.0
Gale Document Number:A227335553
Previous Next
No comments:
Post a Comment