Fisherman hat traditional in Mahe, India

A fishing net or fishnet is a net that is used for fishing. Fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a relatively thin thread. Modern nets are usually made of artificial polyamides like nylon, although nets of organic polyamides such as wool or silk thread were common until recently and are still used.

Mahé, (Malayalam: മാഹി) a small town (9 km²) surrounded on all sides by Kerala and is officially a part of the Union Territory of Pondicherry. The official name of Mahé is Mayyazhi (മയ്യഴി) in the local Malayalam language. The original name of Mahé, Mayyazhi, means "eyebrow of the sea". The Kannur District surrounds Mahé on three sides and Calicut District from one side. The nearest airport is Calicut International Airport, Karipur at a distance of 85 km; Kannur Airport under construction is nearing completion at Mattannur at a distance of 40 km. Nearest Railway Station is Mahé where a few local and express trains stop. The nearest major Railway Stations where several long distance trains stop are Thalassery, Kannur and Badagara.

Formerly a French colony, Mahé now forms a municipality in Mahe district of the Union Territory of Pondicherry (based on the east coast). Mahé has two members (MLAs) in the Pondicherry Legislative Assembly, representing Mahé (E. Valsaraj) and Palloor (A.V. Sreedharan).

French India is a general name for the former French possessions in India (French: établissements français de l'Inde.) These included Pudhucherry, Karikal and Yanam on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar Coast, and Chandannagar in Bengal. In addition there were lodges (loges) located at Machilipatnam, Kozhikode and Surat, but they were merely nominal remnants of French factories.

The total area amounted to 510 km² (200 sq mi), of which 293 km² (113 sq mi) belonged to the territory of Pondichéry. In 1948 the total population amounted to 362,000.^{[citation needed]}