SABARIMALA/KOCHI : The Kerala High Court order to stop the sale of aravana at Sabarimala over unsafe pesticide levels in cardamom has brought to focus the economics of the prasadam at the hill shrine. On average, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) requires 35 lakh kg of jaggery, six lakh kg of rice, and 16,000kg of cardamom during the Mandala-Makaravilakku season from November 16 to January 21.
Devaswom officials said three lakh paper-made containers of prasadam are sold per day. This season has witnessed an average of one lakh pilgrims scaling Sabarimala. It is estimated that a third of the revenue in a season at Sabarimala comes from prasadam sale. The second highest revenue comes from hundi offering, officials said.
A container of aravana prasadam is priced at Rs 100. “The sale of appam constitutes only a small percentage compared to the aravana sale,” said a Devaswom official. Going by this season’s trend, the TDB is expected to receive Rs 350 crore from the current pilgrimage season.
At the hearing in High Court on Wednesday, the counsel for TDB submitted that one ‘kootu’ for aravana prasadam, which consists of ingredients like rice, jaggery, etc. of approximately 350 kg, the quantity of cardamom is only 720g. Further, the aravana is prepared in the plant by heating the ingredients at a temperature above 200 degrees, which will render the prasadam safe for consumption.
As far as the ghee for prasadam and appam is concerned, officials said they get enough ghee through the offerings made by the pilgrims. In 2018, when the number of pilgrims was very low due to the pandemic restrictions, TDB was forced to buy ghee from outside, they said.
SALE RESUMES, SHORTAGE RULED OUT
Sabarimala: The sale of aravana resumed at Lord Ayyappa temple on Thursday morning. The prasadam is available at all counters at Lower Thirumuttam. Other aravana counters at Malikappuram will start functioning soon. There is no cap on the number of containers that can be bought. Devaswom authorities ruled out chances of aravana shortage during the season as the average production capacity is 3 to 3.5 lakh containers daily. Meanwhile, the contractor submitted samples of fresh cardamom to the regional food testing laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram for quality test after an initial test at the devaswom lab facility at Pampa, sources said.