Marari Beach Resort - A Southern India Eco Destination

From the moment you enter a CGH property, you are aware that there is a special relationship with the environment. The Marari Beach resort is no exception. Housed on over 350 acres, it's a testament to their CGH philosophy; reviving your mind, body and spirit as a key to good health. Equipped with an Ayurveda and yoga center, this is a hotel that wants you to focus on recharging your batteries, to leave better than when you entered. You can take advantage of as much or as little as you please, but it's hard to avoid their enthusiasm for a philosophy that all the staff is clearly behind. Time to unplug and unwind.

We arrived at the end of the day, just in time to catch the sun setting into the Arabian Sea, a small village where the fisherfolk of Mararikulam have lived for centuries in harmony with the land and sea. The coastal culture is intertwined with the resort. Dinner in an open air pavilion gave many choices from the organic garden nearby. They also have a Farmers restaurant where you can pick from the garden and prepare family style with the chef. Unfortunately it was booked, but looked like a great group experience.

The next day I met with Jijo, the resident naturalist for a private tour of the property. The resort was built in 1998 and the management looked to the local expert organic farmers for advice on how to incorporate their techniques into the construction of the property. Jijo was loaded with information and his enthusiasm and knowledge was quite contagious. The butterfly garden represents 97 species that are found in Kerala at different times of the year. Butterflies are very sensitive to pollutants and a healthy butterfly population indicates a healthy Eco system.

I was not aware there were so many different kinds of spinach. The farm grows 6- everything from creeping spinach, which produces a great fushia berry used in natural dying, to red, green and miniature varieties.
The organic farm has several methods of pest control which I found interesting. They place reused plastic bags over some of the larger fruits and vegetables to keep the male flys from boring holes for the females to lay eggs.

Everything here has at least a second purpose. Coconut shells line the vegetable beds. Grain and coffee bags are turned into planters. Gourds are used as natural insect traps in the gardens.

Most interesting for me was a trip to the bio gas plant. {sorry no photo} Here food waste {cooked only} is turned into fuel that powers 70% of the necessary fuel needs. Large bones and citrus are removed from the ingredients and the rest goes into a big vat. Efficiency is the name of the game, and as a bacteria helps the biological process, yoke sludge slowly moves into a surrounding tank. Small fish patrol the edge of the floating tank, dining on any mosquito larvae that happen into the process and the resulting methane fuel powers much of the complex. Remaining is an after sludge- we'd call it black gold in the States, that is rich in minerals and is used as a garden drink for the plants. There was also a vermi-composting unit with an active worm population making compost.

Ash from the fire is used in a spray form for insects and they had an ingenious basil repellant contraption, which when ingested in large amounts is toxic to flies. Guinea hens are at work on ground insects, and a type of aerobic fish has been introduced to eat the mosquito larvae on the many ponds in the area. They also employ tobacco water {tobacco leaves soaked in water} and neem oil for insect control.

The spot definately has lots of romantic overtones, appreciated by a couple of college gal pals, but i'm afraid much underutilized : ).

I learned more about food on this trip, than any I have taken before. And though I did seek it out, the India we traveled through had an extremely high focus on organic and healthy eating. Perhaps because the country has over a billion people to feed, it's a focus of immediate importance, but I felt it was something more, a real movement in the country to make a change.