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Chanting the green mantra

The first National Tourism Award for the Best Eco-Friendly Resort has been won by Coconut Lagoon, Kumarakom, a cghearth group hotel. Priyadarsshini Sharma finds out how they did it

COOL AND SERENE Coconut Lagoon where everything is in sync with Nature

Environment friendly and biodegradable: These are the magic words, when put into action, can save the world and give posterity a chance to breathe clean air and live in a clean environment. In the hospitality industry, it is the byword, and the race to get it right first has begun. Coconut Lagoon, Kumarakom, a cghearth group hotel has breasted the tape first. It has just won the National Tourism Award 2004-5 under the category of Best Eco-Friendly Resort. It is the first recipient of the award, just constituted.

The untiring effort of the men behind the scene have managed this for the hotel, the State and for Kerala tourism. Says the proud proprietor, Jose Dominic, " Being Eco-friendly and responsive towards community are our non-negotiable core values. That anything and everything we do should answer to these values. This is our constant endeavour." The group receives the award later this year.

What are the features of this backwater resort that makes it so environmentally distinct?

"The steps taken at Coconut Lagoon, from designing the rooms, to toilets, to water management, butterfly garden, Vechur cow project, organic farm and many others are quite unparalleled in the hotel industry. But they are our key components. Travellers too are now demanding ecologically sensitive practises," says Mr. Dominic, explaining that the very definition of a hotel room with a view has changed completely. " It is a now a room from the view. If the hotel is spewing smoke or filth, the room is ugly, that is, the room is acting irresponsibly. The travellers are making definitive choices now." So from the architecture of the property, the reassembling of tharavadus in accordance with thachu shastra, using the ancient rules of carpentry to the use of natural and local materials for construction and lime wash for walls, the structures are natural, with nature playing a pivotal role. Explains Mr. Dominic about this accent on nature as the policy of the group. " When in 1988, we started our first venture in Bangaram, Lakshadweep, the unique offering there was nature. It was a call to our being. " And so it is nature all the way at Coconut Lagoon. From the Butterfly garden where you can spot 70 species of butterflies to 50 varieties of dragonflies and damselflies, with some of the rarest species, the property is a haven for natural life. The Vechur cow conservation project, an effort to rehabilitate this endemic species, the organic farm cultivating hybrid varieties of rice, planting of mangrove saplings, fish sanctuary, `petty' and `para' which is a traditional way of pumping out water from the paddy fields, this system is used to circulate water in the canals that run through the 22 acres of the resort, every detail is environmentally friendly.

Says P. Subrahmanian, general manager, Coconut Lagoon, "All this will come to naught if the staff is not in sync with the philosophy. So we have constant up gradation and training programmes for the staff. We have three naturalists who maintain the flora and fauna and our nature club, `Egret'. Dr. Sreekumar, president of Kottayam Nature Society who's an ornithologist, educates guests about the birds. Rainwater harvesting, vermi-compost, biogas and reverse osmosis process are some of the other environmental friendly projects prevalent in the hotel. In fact this concept has influenced the entire locality, so much so that the rice shop near the hotel boat jetty has started using recycled paper bags for delivering goods. Our eco-friendly ways have inspired them too!"

But the real change, this back to nature concept, in the larger sense, has caused is the way in which a holiday is now being defined. "For us a holiday is not an escape but a fulfilment and in that sense it becomes a pilgrimage: a physical, spiritual and emotional experience. These intangibles are what really make a holiday here," says Mr. Dominic.

And for the group that has pioneered this eco-friendly concept not only in the country but in a global sense too, the dividend is this award that they have received. Elevating a holiday, a trip, an outing to one that promises a pristine experience Mr. Dominic rounds off quoting William Blake, the lines that have inspired his group to turn staunchly eco-friendly. " To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower... ..

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour... ."

Imagine the experience while you wait for the traffic lights to change.

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