Illegal fishing nets, wooden poles hamper safe boating in Kochi backwaters
A boat ferries guests through the conventional route in the Kochi backwaters due to obstacles like fishing nets and wooden poles on many other routes.
| Photo Credit: H. VIBHU
The proliferation of illegal fishing nets and wooden poles at many places in the Kochi backwaters is hampering the extension of backwater tourism to more areas and islands in the vicinity, say tourist boat operators.
The Marine Drive Tourist Boats’ Association has been expressing apprehensions about plying boats beyond Elankunnapuzha due to safety hazards posed by such wooden poles and stumps put mostly by fishers who operate ‘Oonuvala’ and Chinese fishing nets, said Saju T.B., its secretary. “There have been instances of tourist boats suffering damage to their hull after ramming such stumps that are located below the water surface. We hope the Fisheries department will take steps to clear such stumps and poles that hamper the safety of boats, so that they can operate on more routes,” he said.
The Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) and the State Water Transport department (SWTD) also operate tourist boats in the backwaters off Marine Drive, and to neighbouring districts.
Earlier this month, the KSINC took up the issue of such wooden poles in the vicinity of Kakkathuruth island near Arookutty, which shot to fame when the National Geographic magazine identified it in 2016 as one of the best places to watch the sunset, with the Fisheries department and people’s representatives from the area.
“This was after we were unable to extend the operation of Michelle and Cleopatra, two of our tourist boats, from Marine Drive to Kakkathuruth, due to encroachment on the backwaters in the form of wooden poles that are used to support fishing nets,” said sources in the agency, which has been operating these and other tourist vessels to three other backwater locales.
With the Fisheries department not taking steps to remove the poles, the KSINC yet again shot off a letter to the department on Monday, demanding their removal, citing how extension of tourist boat operations to the under-explored island was crucial to attract more tourists to the locale.
Apart from posing obstacle for tourists who are keen to visit the island, the proliferation of such nets and poles, which include those that once supported Chinese fishing nets that are now abandoned, is a safety hazard for boats, the agency found in a study that it conducted recently.
“Wooden poles put up across the entire width of the backwaters in the area have in turn shattered the hopes of islanders who were looking forward to earning a livelihood from the village tourism sector. The Fisheries department had stopped issuing licences to such nets long ago. The delay on the part of the department and fishers themselves in clearing the nets has also been taken up with the presidents concerned of nearby panchayats,” said Foji John, coordinator of Kakkathuruth tourism project.
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