WAYFARER

Islands and Oceans

An island is a useful teacher. It has edges, so you can see what it can carry. A ferry that runs twice a day, a reef that does not like sunscreen, a national park that has just decided how many people it can hold in a day: these are not inconveniences, they are the place telling you its limits.

This month's issue goes to a few of them. We begin in the Azores, where the same cliffs that once held whale-spotters' huts now hold spotters who radio boats full of visitors. We go to Tripura, which does not appear on enough itineraries, and to the Andaman Islands, where one researcher's patient work with fishers has turned into a network of more than 200 people watching for dugongs.

As always, the profiles in these pages are drawn from published reporting and say so. We have not met the people named, and we have marked how we would feature them properly. If you know them, or have been to these places, we would like to hear from you.

Read slowly. Pack light. Ask the ferry operator twice.

— Gitanjali Gautam, Editor-in-Chief

This month's theme. July is the month to look at the edges of the map. A whaling island that learned to watch its whales instead, a water palace in Tripura, coral and seagrass in the Andamans, a dragon-haunted national park with a new visitor cap, and a winter city at the bottom of Australia. The common thread is attention: islands reward people who slow down, and punish those who hurry.

• Europe's Entry/Exit System has been fully operational at Schengen external borders since 10 April 2026; ETIAS is scheduled for the last quarter of 2026, with the exact date to be announced. Source: European Commission, Home Affairs (https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/news/main-differences-between-ees-and-etias-what-travellers-need-know-2026-04-28_en).
• Komodo National Park's visitor quota of 1,000 a day took effect on 1 April 2026, as reported by RRI on 16 April 2026 (https://rri.co.id/en/environment/2337309/ministry-of-forestry-limits-tourist-quota-to-visit-komodo-national-park).
• Andaman and Nicobar Administration's tourism department states that foreign nationals do not need a Restricted Area Permit for 29 excluded islands, and 11 islands are exempt for day visits, valid to 31 December 2027, with exceptions for certain nationalities (https://tourism.andamannicobar.gov.in/).
• Air India Express announced direct flights from Navi Mumbai to Abu Dhabi from 15 July 2026, the first international service from the new airport, as reported by The National on 22 June 2026 (https://www.thenationalnews.com/travel/2026/06/22/abu-dhabi-route-to-mark-first-international-flight-from-navi-mumbai-airport-on-july-15/).