Kakkathuruthu island rose to global fame after National Geographic named it as one of the best places to watch the sunset.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) has dropped plans to operate day-long tour packages in its partly air-conditioned (AC) tourist boats from Marine Drive to the world famous Kakkathuruthu Island on the Ernakulam-Alappuzha border citing ‘inordinate delay’ in removing two unlicensed fishing nets from the backwaters around the island.
Kakkathuruthu rose to global fame after National Geographic named it as one of the best places to watch the sunset. It was also listed in its ‘Around the World in 24 Hours’, a photographic tour of travel-worthy spots, in 2016.
“We have decided not to go ahead with our ambitious plan to operate package tours in our partly AC vessels to the pristine island, located a stone’s throw away from Kochi, considering the delay of over a year by local bodies and the Fisheries department in removing two unlicensed nets that obstruct safe navigation along the waterway,” said sources in the State government-owned KSINC, which owns and operates a fleet of tourist boats from Marine Drive.
The ongoing summer vacation would have been the ideal time to commence the service as demand from families and tourist groups for boating and package tours had been going up, they added.
The agency had, in 2024, identified its sister vessels, Michelle and Cleopatra, which can seat 20 people in their AC space and 80 in the non-AC space, to operate package tours to Kakkathuruthu. Among other tours, the vessels operated luxury package cruises from the agency’s terminal at Marine Drive to resorts on islands off Kochi and to Panavally in Alappuzha.
Along with the KSINC, tourism stakeholders from the island had also repeatedly flagged the obstruction that the fishing nets posed to the safe navigation of tourist vessels from Kochi.
The tourism coordinator of Kakkathuruthu, Foji John, who also operates a farm tourism initiative on the island, said the two nets that had encroached on the waterway were among the 36 unlicensed fishing nets and stumps erected by people in the backwaters around the island. “The owners of the pair of nets are reluctant to relocate them, though most of the nets here are not being operated due to a decline in fish catch. By hampering tourist arrivals, such man-made obstructions in the waterbody have affected the job prospects of hundreds of islanders,” he added.
He expressed angst at the Fisheries department, along with two grama panchayats in the region—all of which are empowered to clear the nets—for doing little in this regard despite multiple representations by the KSINC and tourism stakeholders.
“They ought to have at least acted on decisions taken at meetings convened to discuss the issue so that there would be sustained interest in such iconic isles among tourists,” Mr. John added.
With the nets hampering direct waterway connectivity from Marine Drive, tourists now have to travel by road to Alappuzha district and then rely on boats operating from nearby terminals to reach the locale, it is learnt.
Published – March 31, 2025 12:30 am IST
