Kottayam (Kerala): What would you do with a modern swimming pool when you have no guest coming to your resort for several months at a stretch? Owners of a swanky resort in Kerala came up with an innovative idea to make the best use of their facilities.
Owner Prashant Chawla and general manager Jyothish Surendra of Avedha Resort at Kumarakom mulled over the issue of their not-in-use swimming pool, and finally came up with the idea to convert it into a fish farm.
With no revenue being generated from their resort, which is shut owing to the prevailing COVID-19 situation, they soon sprung to action and the employees of the resort, who had been rendered jobless, readily stepped in to make the novel idea a reality.
This pool now has 16,000 hatchlings of Pearl Spot, a highly popular variety of fish in Kerala. They thought of several varieties before deciding on the Kumarakom Pearl Spots, as they have a huge demand in the market and a higher price.
The pool is now covered with nets and the hatchlings are growing healthy. The hatchlings were collected from four hatcheries, after detailed consultation with aquaculture experts and were deposited in the pool in June.
So far, around Rs two lakh have been spent for the fish farming and the owners hope to harvest about 4,000 kg fish by the beginning of November.
Though the tourism sector carries hopes of revival December, resort owners in the state are doubtful about a complete comeback by the end of the year.
