Faced with flak, tourism and civic agencies attempt to restore Fort Kochi beach to its past glory

Efforts underway to clean up Fort Kochi beach and prevent sea erosion before tourist season, with proposed innovative solutions.

Close on the heels of a video taken earlier this month by a foreigner on the plight of the Fort Kochi beach and garbage strewn all around going viral, tourism and civic agencies are attempting to set things right at the beach and the heritage locale at least before the onset of the tourist season in September, it is learnt.

Still, Kerala Tourism and the other agencies concerned are yet to roll out tangible beach protection measures to prevent sea incursion and the subsequent deposit of seaweed on the beach, apart from trash in the form of plastic, rubber, and thermocol.

A senior official of the agency said stakeholders would take a relook at the proposals made by, among others, IIT Madras to reclaim vast tracts of land that were lost to sea incursion during the past decade.

Experts from the Department of Ocean Engineering of IIT Madras had submitted a comprehensive report to Kerala Tourism in 2021 on arresting unprecedented sea erosion on the beachfront. Their suggestions included the erection of a seawall in an innovative, curvy pattern to lessen the intensity of waves that lashed the shore. They specifically recommended laying geotextile tubes well into the sea to aid beach formation and laying geotextiles on the beach to arrest sea erosion. Their recommendations were not implemented since officials of the Irrigation department suggested that a conventional sea wall using concrete tetrapods would be more durable, despite the higher cost of the project, tourism sources said.

On its part, the Kochi Corporation has mulled a floating boom barrier that protrudes into the sea, to prevent the deposit of trash and seaweed on the beach, said Mayor M. Anilkumar. “This would be apart from a project to procure machinery to ensure the cleanliness of the beach. The plan is to implement it using ₹5 crore that had been earmarked in the State Budget. The district administration is taking follow-up action in this regard,” he added.

With its Kerala regional office overlooking the Fort Kochi beach, officials of India Tourism too are peeved at widespread trash deposits from the sea, apart from vendors and visitors littering the beach and its premises, it is learnt. “The Centre had recently approved ₹169.05-crore-worth projects to develop tourism at two locales in Kerala. They are the ‘Alappuzha Global Water Wonderland’ project to boost backwater tourism and another project to enhance tourism amenities at Malampuzha. Likewise, a sustainable project could be readied to reclaim the Fort Kochi beach and to bring back the lost charm to the locale,” said Narendran N., Assistant Director, Ministry of Tourism, who is based at the regional office.

In January 2024, a group of Russian women tourists had cleaned up the garbage-ridden Fort Kochi beach prior to taking a swim, which prompted Kerala Tourism to seek a report from its officials on the condition of the historic beach that witnessed the arrival of foreign traders and at least three colonial powers during the past centuries.