'Aerial activities disturbing sacred atmosphere': TTD seeks 'no fly zone' over Tirumala hill shrine

Hyderabad: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chairman BR Naidu on Saturday wrote to Union Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu seeking his intervention to declare no flying zone over the Tirumala shrine.

TTD manages the affairs of the world's richest Hindu temple of Lord Sri Venkateswara atop Tirumala. 'No fly zone' refers to an area where aircraft are not allowed to fly.

The letter stated that Tirumala should be declared a no flying zone keeping in mind the principles of Agama Shastra, sanctity of the temple, safety and sentiments of the devotees.

It has also stated that low flying planes, helicopters and other aerial activities on the Tirumala hill are disturbing the sacred atmosphere around the Srivari temple.

In the letter, the TTD chairman has sought the Union Minister to respond and take appropriate action in the matter to protect the sanctity, cultural and spiritual heritage of Tirumala.

According to Vaikhanasa Agama shastras, metal objects are forbidden from flying atop the main sanctum sanctorum of the temple in Tirumala- ‘Ananda Nilayam’.

Though the air space above Tirumala temple was not officially declared as a ‘No-fly zone’ by the central agencies like DGCA, owing to sentiments of the devotees airlines avoid the route above Ananda Nilayam.

All the rituals and sevas at Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple, which is also called SriVari temple, are performed strictly in accordance with the rules and principles laid down, several thousand years ago, by Sage Vaikhanasa.

The manual called Vaikhanasa Bhagavath Agama Shastra guides all the rituals that are currently being performed in Sri Vari Temple, every day.

As per this Agama Shastra, it is believed that many gods, goddesses, Gandharvas and holy angels are constantly standing in prayers and are having, from the skies or from the celestial world, an ‘Aroopa Darsana’ or a view of the formless Lord Venkateswara, residing on the earth’s Tirumala hills.

The Agama Shastras say, “All these divine personalities are constantly gazing at 'Him' with great reverential attention”.

Keeping this aspect of divinity on the Tirumala hills in view, the Vaikhanasa principles prohibit any Vimanas or metal objects flying in between these celestial devotees and their holy Lord Venkateswara.

That means no flying objects or air crafts should be allowed to fly over either the Tirumala temple or over the seven hills of Tirumala.

Centre earlier turned down TTD plea to declare Tirumala temple no-fly zone

In 2012, the then state government headed by N Kiran Kumar Reddy and then the board of TTD had requested the Centre to declare the Tirumala temple airspace as a no-fly zone. In 2015, the AP government reiterated its appeal during P Ashok Gajapathi Raju’s tenure as Union civil aviation minister. But, the DGCA turned down the request in 2016 and made it clear that the ancient hill town cannot be declared a no-fly zone.

“Due to terrain constraints around the Tirupati airport, the airport is already restricted to single runway operations and any additional restrictions in the form of a fly zone over Tirumala hills will further reduce the accessibility to such an important airport. Hence, it is not possible to declare the Tirupati airport as a fly zone,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told Rajya Sabha in a written in July 2016.

The DGCA had earlier also turned down similar pleas from the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri of Odisha) and Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple in Kerala.