From Nets to Hooks: Piravom's Fishing Practices Along the Muvattupuzha River

The Muvattupuzha River, a lifeline for the people of Piravom, flows through the picturesque landscapes of Kochi in Kerala. It’s actually the town Muvattupuzha itself being the starting point of this river. It’s a very calm river. As the word Muvattupuzha indicates ‘Moonu’ meaning three, and ‘aaru’ meaning small river and ‘puzha’ meaning river itself. As this reveals this river is composed of three other rivers ie, Kothamangalum river, Kaliyar river and Thodupuzha river. The river flows up into Vaikom lake or Vembanad lake and then empty into the Arabian sea. The length of river is around 121 Kms. The first concrete bridge in India is built over this river called Muvattupuzha Bridge. There is a dam across the river called Malankara Dam for the irrigation purposes. we just try to take observe a small stretch of the river which passes through my locality (ie almost 5 kms of the river), Piravom, Ernakulam district, Kerala, 686664, India.