Jamshedpur, May 11: Last year, for the students of Loyola School, excursion in Andaman and Nicobar islands turned out to be one of their biggest nightmares, when mammoth tsunami waves battered the island. The students were stranded for days, cut off from the rest of the world.

This time, the schools do not want to cut down on the joy and glee of school excursions. But in order to avert any untoward incidents, in case the students face such catastrophes, most of the city schools have decided to beef up security measures for their excursions.

While most schools have chosen the hill stations in the north as their destinations, those touring the coastal areas have also planned to bolster communication channels among authorities, students and their parents.

The students of Narbheram Hansraj English School (NHES) have already packed their bags to scale the hills of Shimla-Kulu-Manali while a group from Kerala Samajam Model School (KSMS) is already on their way to Delhi, Jaipur, Amritsar and Vaishno Devi.

Sacred Heart Convent School, too, has a long trip to Ambala, Chandigarh, Shimla, Manali, Rohtang Pass and Kulu lined ahead during the Durga Puja vacations. The trip would finally be rounded off with a short shopping binge in Delhi.

?The destinations were decided on a general consensus. But the trip has been planned so that if anything untoward does happen, we shall be able to cope with it,? said Nandini Shukla, principal of Kerala Samajam Model School.

The authorities at Narbheram and Sacred Heart, too, have chalked out similar arrangements.

?What happened last year in the Andamans was unfortunate. Though we cannot keep a check on natural disasters, we can be on the alert on our part and keep the parents informed all through the trip,? said Meeta Jakhanwal, principal of NHES.

Adventure trips to Darjeeling and Manali are on the cards for the students of Carmel Junior College and DBMS English School respectively. Both the school authorities have been meticulous about the security arrangements.

?The school authorities keep in touch with us regularly, when we do on our annual trip. Besides, we have teachers accompanying us to help us out when we are in trouble,? said Shreya Bhattacharya, a student of Class VIII in Carmel Junior College.

ADLS Sunshine School has already chalked out excursion plans to Kanyakumari Bangalore and Trivandrum this winter. Security is an integral element of their blueprint too.

?Managing a big group is difficult. So, we have decided to keep the student-teacher ratio to about a teacher for each seven or eight students. This way, each student would get sufficient attention in case of any crisis. The group is also a small one and we have only 40 students in it,? informed Shobha Madan, principal of ADLS.