The Backwaters

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Trips through the backwaters cross shallow, palm-fringed lakes studded with cantilevered Chinese fishing nets, and travel along narrow, shady canals where coir (coconut fibre), copra (dried coconut meat) and cashews are loaded onto boats. Along the way are small villages with mosques, churches, temples and schools, villagers going about their daily chores, and tiny settlements where people live on narrow spits of reclaimed land only a few metres wide.

Travelling through the 900km network of waterways that fringe the coast and trickle far inland is the undisputed main attraction of a trip to Kerala. Long before the advent of roads these waterways were the slippery highways of Kerala, and many villagers today still use paddle-power as transport.

Environmental problems such as pollution, land reclamation, and industrial and agricultural development seriously threaten the backwaters and the communities that live on their banks. It's estimated that the backwaters are only at one third of their mid-19th-century levels. Many migratory birds no longer visit the backwaters. Another very obvious problem is the unhindered spread of water hyacinth (African moss or Nile cabbage), which clogs many stretches of the canals.

Kerala Tourism produces (www.keralatourism.org) a Backwater Map.