THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Niraputhari, a ritual observed in the temples in and around the city to usher in prosperity and ensure good harvest, will be held on Monday morning. Temples in the city will offer freshly harvested sheaves of paddy to the presiding deities. Devotees hang rice panicles received from temples as ‘prasadam’ at their homes because it is considered auspicious to do so. ‘Niraputhari’ festivals held at Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple, Attukal temple and Pazhavangady Ganapathy temple are the most famous ones.
City Corporation has been entrusted with the cultivation and procurement of paddy sheaves, which are grown at Putharikandam field, for Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple. The paddy field in front of the temple thus got its name Putharikandam maidanam due to this. This year the paddy sheaves will not be procured from Putharikandam because a part of the paddy field has been rendered useless for cultivation due to development works. Over the years, large tracts of field have been filled for conducting various activities in the city and only a small portion has been kept aside for cultivation. But irrigating this low lying land has become a problem since the surrounding areas has been raised. During monsoon the entire area becomes flooded with sewerage water and the paddy becomes disease affected. The incomplete works of Operation Anantha, a major infrastructure initiative for preventing floods in the city, is being blamed for this problem. “We anticipated this and made alternate arrangements. We cultivated paddy in grow bags and on other fields this time,” said Mayor V K Prashant.
He handed over the paddy cultivated by Karshika Karma Sena at Kudappanakunnu, which functions under Krishi Bhavan, to the temple authorities on Sunday. Considering the demand for paddy sheaves Cropping Systems Research Centre (CSRC) under Kerala Agricultural University at Nedumcad near Karamana, kept their office open on Sunday. The centre has been providing paddy sheaves of ‘Uma’ rice variety to around 70 temples in the city for the past 10 years. Seventeen acre farm of CSRC produced more than two tonnes of paddy stalks for this purpose alone for Rs 100 per one sqmt. Seeds for the paddy sheaves meant for ‘Niraputhari’ are sown on the first day of the Medam month, the day on which ‘Vishu’ is celebrated, and the ripe paddy sheaves are harvested by the middle or end of Karkidakam.