All time high revenue at Sabarimala temple

If it was the steep fall in revenue that caused much concern to the Sabarimala temple authorities during the last two pilgrimage seasons, an all time high revenue of around Rs. 350 crore is posing challenges this time.

Even as the temple closed after the two month long pilgrimage on Friday, it would take more days to end the counting of the offerings. Around 480 employees are engaged in counting the offerings.

Allegations of the mishandling of soiled notes received as offerings had also come up and hence the counting is progressing under tight vigil. The Kerala High court had even asked the devaswom vigilance authorities to give a report on the matter.

The Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the hill shrine had informed the Kerala High court bench looking into the matter that the counting could be completed by January 25.

Temple sources said that the revenue reached around Rs. 320 crore ahead of the Makaravilakku day on last Saturday. Hence the total revenue would be crossing Rs. 350 crore as there was heavy rush of pilgrims till the last day of darshan for public on Thursday.

The highest revenue of the temple so far was Rs. 278 crore during the 2017-18 pilgrimage season. During 2018-19 season the revenue fell down to Rs. 179 crore. Tensions over the women entry issue was considered to be a reason. In 2019-20 the revenue was Rs. 264 crore.

In 2020-21 and 2021-22 pilgrimage seasons the revenue drastically fell to Rs. 21 crore and Rs. 151 crore owing to restrictions on pilgrims due to Covid. It had put the temple administration in acute financial crunches. Hence this year the all time high revenue has come as a big relief to the devaswom board, said sources.

The temple closed by Friday morning after the return of the 'Tiruvabharanam' (sacred ornaments) and other rituals.