Chinese nets in troubled waters

KOCHI: The four-pronged Chinese fishing nets overlooking a setting sun might be the face of Kochi, but the fact is that they are dwindling by the day. In the last 20 years, the number of Chinese nets in Fort Kochi has gone down by about 50 per cent, said Chinese net owners in the region.“20 years back we had 21 Chinese nets in Fort Kochi. Now only 11 are left. Many of them were due to high maintenance cost. In the last few years, at places, we only have abandoned water where once stood the nets,” says K J Simon, president of the Chinese Fishing Net Owners Association of Fort Kochi.However, many of these Chinese nets continue to exist on paper. “Most owners who abandoned their nets due to financial difficulties hope to revive it some day. So, they continue to pay the annual licence fee to keep the nets with the Cochin Port Trust. The nets are still functioning on the papers,“ said Simon.While many have resorted to abandoning their Chinese nets, others have taken to replacing the wooden poles with more economical and easily available steel poles for the nets. This made the tourism department to look up and notice. Also, a scheme was launched to provide financial assistance to maintain the Chinese nets. However, it has been months and the fishing net owners are yet to get any assistance.According to the Chinese Fishing Net owners, every one from the government to the star hotels to the tourists guides to even the vendors in the area make money out of this tourist attraction but no body is ready to help in its maintenance.“Maintaining a Chinese fishing net is indeed an uneconomical prospect. However, if they are replaced by the steel trunks it will lead to a complete loss of the heritage value and the aesthetic charm of the fishing nets. We have sent the project and requested funding from several bodies including the tourism board.  But, since the expense touches to as much as 5 lakh per Chinese net, the process might take some time,” said N Ramaswamy, the State Co-convener of Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) which was entrusted with the project for the renovation of Chinese fishing nets.