KOCHI: Landing the finances of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) in the doldrums, the annual income generated by the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple has dropped by a whopping 92.2 per cent in the wake of the Covid pandemic. The hill shrine’s revenue — which stood at Rs 269 crore in 2019-20 — has nosedived to a meagre Rs 21 crore this year.
The Board, which relies on the temple’s two-month annual pilgrimage to meet administrative expenses of the 1,248 temples under its ambit, has resorted to knocking on the doors of devotees and neighbouring states to salvage the situation.Including the staff’s salary, the Board needs at least `40 crore a month to run all 1,248 temples.
Though up to 83 of these temples are self-reliant, the revenue from these temples have also diminished. The income, however, has shrunk to Rs 15-20 crore per month, forcing the administration to explore other options.
“This is an unprecedented situation. Though the government has already given us `70 crore, we plan to ask for more. The widening revenue-to-expenditure gap has forced us to resort to austerity measures,” said N Vasu, TDB president.
Most pilgrims who visit the temple are from neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “The Board is planning to approach the rich devotees and governments of these states for support. There are also plans to retrench around 200 temporary employees as a cost-cutting measure,” Vasu said.
Pilgrims’ offerings to be mortgaged
Another plan is to mortgage the gold offered by devotees with the Reserve Bank of India to avail a loan. Bronze utensils and lamps will be auctioned to raise funds. “The process of assessing the gold and bronze stock is under way,” the TDB chief said, adding that a strategy to reduce expenses and increase non-pooja revenue would also be launched soon. The scheme to seek support from devotees will be launched in February, he said.
Till 2017-18, around 1-1.5 lakh pilgrims used to visit Sabarimala daily during the 60-day pilgrimage season. This year, when the pilgrimage season began on November 16, the government restricted the number of pilgrims to 1,000 on weekdays and 2,000 on weekends in view of Covid. The number was later raised to 2,000 on weekdays and 3,000 on weekends from December 1, and further enhanced to 5,000 a day from January 1.
The pandemic is only the latest in a series of unfortunate events that had been impacting the TDB adversely over the past few years. The Board had incurred a huge setback in 2018-19, in the wake of violent protests by some Hindu organisations following the Supreme Court order on September 28, 2018, allowing women of all ages to enter the hill shrine. The floods had also inflicted a blow to its income.
pilgrimage season revenue
2020-21 Rs 21.17 crore
2019-20 Rs 269.37 crore
2018-19 Rs 179.22 crore
2017-18 Rs 277.96 crore
Auction of shops
2020-21 - Rs 4 crore
2019-20 - Rs 45 crore
Offerings (Kanikka)
2020-21 - Rs 8.62 crore
2019-20 - Rs 97.46 crore
2018-19 - Rs 72 crore