TIRUPATI: Announcing a slew of preventive measures, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams EO V Dharma Reddy instructed the vendors on the Alipiri footpath route not to sell fruits and vegetables. In the wake of wild animal movement in different areas along the footpath routes, the TTD has issued guidelines and instructions for the footpath-route shopkeepers.
A meeting was held in Tirupati on Friday evening headed by TTD EO AV Dharma Reddy with TTD, forest, police officials and shopkeepers of the footpath routes.The TTD EO maintained that in a bid to avoid any human-animal conflict, the TTD has decided to stall the sale of fruits and vegetables along the footpath route as the pedestrian pilgrims purchase them and feed the monkeys, deer etc.
This in turn is resulting in the intrusion of wild beasts, which are posing a serious threat to the lives of trekkers. Similarly, all the footpath shopkeepers along the Alipiri route, counting more than 100 in number, are instructed to keep the premises clean and dump the waste in twin bins segregating dry and wet wastes. Every day nearly 2-3 tons of garbage is being piled up along the footpath route and removed by the Health Department of TTD regularly.
The TTD officials also announced that an alert should be raised immediately if any footpath vendor comes across the movement of wild beasts. They should immediately inform the forest or TTD officials, whose phone numbers will now be displayed at the footpath route.TTD will also install CCTV cameras all along the footpath route. Serious action will be initiated against the footpath vendor found violating the above guidelines, the EO maintained.