The Chinese fishing nets are the image Kerala sells itself with — the silhouette on the tourism posters, the sunset shot several thousand phones take every evening. It is easy to assume all that attention amounts to protection. The record on this beach says the opposite.
The count
Around 22 net structures stood on this waterfront three decades ago. Roughly a dozen remain. The beach is generally said to have carried two dozen at its fullest.
The intensity fell with the number. AFP, reporting from Fort Kochi in 2014, found the surviving crews hauling about a hundred times a day, down from something nearer two hundred and fifty. Modern boats and trawlers had taken the commercial catch; a labour-intensive fixed lift net stopped paying for itself.
What the men working them said
V R Simon, then 75 and one of the oldest operators on the beach, told that AFP reporter: “We pull the nets, tourists come, they give us something and that’s how we survive.” And, more bluntly: “We live like beggars.”
John Kalathil Barried, 62, put the same thing as arithmetic — very hard work, less fish, less money, and not enough of it to look after a family on. Both were describing a trade that had already stopped being fishing and become performance, without becoming profitable.
The ₹2.40 crore that has not arrived
Kerala Tourism did act. An initial ₹1.5 crore for refurbishment grew into a ₹2.40 crore scheme, implemented through the technical consultancy KITCO, to renovate eleven of the nets and build platforms so visitors could see them worked at close range.
Nine years later it was still unfinished. Around ₹1.20 crore had gone on teak and kalasanti wood, procured and transported — and stacked, since 2017. Some 220 teak logs were eventually supplied. Four net operators, done with waiting, had gone out three months earlier and bought twelve-metre coconut stumps themselves. Their bills, roughly ₹7.5 lakh for stumps and labour, were still not cleared, held up in part by a GST registration problem with the operators’ association. A few lakh more of small items — netting, planks, steel ropes, food counters — remained outstanding.
- ₹1.5 crore initial allocation from Kerala Tourism, growing to a ₹2.40 crore scheme.
- 11 nets in the project. Implementing agency: KITCO.
- ~₹1.20 crore spent on teak and kalasanti wood — stacked since 2017.
- 220 teak logs eventually supplied; 4 operators bought their own 12 m coconut stumps.
- ~₹7.5 lakh of operators’ bills unpaid, snagged partly on GST registration.
- Nine years of delay attributed to bureaucracy and the pandemic.
So the nets are standing on pipe
A cheena vala cannot wait for a procurement cycle. It is a timber machine permanently in brackish water: the netting perishes, the ropes chafe through, and the uprights and beams rot from the waterline down and have to be cut out and renewed every few years or the thing comes down.
With the promised teak sitting in a yard, most operators did the only available thing and propped their nets on lengths of steel pipe. It works, and it costs the structures both their look and some of their working feel. The most photographed wooden objects in India are now partly held up with scaffolding, while the money to restore them remains unspent.
Why this is worth knowing before you take the photograph
Not to spoil the sunset. The nets are genuinely extraordinary, the mechanism is worth a full cycle of your attention, and the crews will usually let you pull on the beam for a tip — which is, at this point, a real part of their income rather than a charming extra.
But the picture most people leave with — timeless heritage, lovingly preserved — is not what is in front of them. What is in front of them is a shrinking working fishery that has been kept upright by its operators, in pipe, while a nine-year restoration argues about invoices. If you tip properly, and if you look at the base of the frame rather than only the silhouette, you will have seen the place accurately.
And if you want to see the same machine still being worked as a job rather than as a view, the nets in the creeks at Kumbalangi — more than a hundred of them, with no audience and no scheme — are twelve kilometres away.
Frequently asked questions
How many Chinese fishing nets are left at Fort Kochi?
Roughly a dozen. There were around 22 structures three decades ago, and the beach is generally said to have carried two dozen at its peak. Modern boats and trawlers took the commercial fishing, and the labour-intensive fixed lift net stopped covering its own costs.
What is the Chinese nets restoration project?
A Kerala Tourism scheme, implemented by the consultancy KITCO, to renovate eleven nets and build viewing platforms. It began with an allocation of ₹1.5 crore and grew into a ₹2.40 crore project. Nine years on it remained unfinished, with delays attributed to bureaucracy and the pandemic.
Why has it taken so long?
Mainly procurement. Around ₹1.20 crore of teak and kalasanti wood was bought and then left stacked from 2017; 220 logs were eventually supplied; four operators bought their own twelve-metre coconut stumps rather than wait, and their bills of roughly ₹7.5 lakh went unpaid, held up partly by a GST registration issue with the operators’ association.
Why do some nets have steel pipes in them?
Because the timber never came. A net rots from the waterline down and has to be renewed on its own schedule, not the project’s, so with teak unavailable most crews propped their structures on lengths of steel pipe. It is structurally effective and costs the nets a great deal of their character.
Do the operators make a living from fishing or from tourists?
Increasingly from visitors. Crews interviewed on this beach have said plainly that tourist tips are how they survive, and that the catch alone will not support a family. If you pull on the beam or take a close-up, tip properly — you are occupying working time on a net that is not fishing while you are on it.
Where can I see these nets still worked as a job?
Kumbalangi, about twelve kilometres away, has more than a hundred of them spread along working creeks, fished for household income with no audience and no restoration scheme attached. The Fort Kochi row is the photograph; the Kumbalangi nets are the trade.