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A bad hair day for two Andhra thieves: The Pioneer
Hyderabad, Aug 14: The Tirumala police has arrested two persons for stealing 10 kg human hair worth Rs 70,000 from the Kalyanakatta area of the Tirumala temple complex, the famous abode of Lord Venkateshwara, 550 kilometre south of Hyderabad. The accused, Suresh and Shankar, were on Wednesday produced in a local court that remanded them to judicial custody.
Hyderabad, Aug 14: The Tirumala police has arrested two persons for stealing 10 kg human hair worth Rs 70,000 from the Kalyanakatta area of the Tirumala temple complex, the famous abode of Lord Venkateshwara, 550 kilometre south of Hyderabad. The accused, Suresh and Shankar, were on Wednesday produced in a local court that remanded them to judicial custody.
According to the Tirumala Station police inspector Mr Potappa, the two revealed that they were helped by the temporary barbers employed by the temple authorities. The two unemployed youth from Chittoor were planning to sell the hair to local traders at Tirupati, Mr Potappa said.
Local authorities say that it is not the first time that human hair was stolen from the temple complex. The Tirumala police has registered at least five such cases in the recent years. Two employees and two outsiders have so far been arrested for this offence and the cases are pending in the court, a local head constable Munikrishna said. Officials say that the security problems have increased after the appointment of casual workers for shaving the heads of pilgrims at Kalyanakatta. Getting one's head shaved is part of the ritual of the devotees visiting the temple of Sri Venkateshwara atop the Tirumala Hills. The hair is then collected and sold by the temple authorities in an auction, which fetches Rs 50 crore per annum.
Exporters as well as the wig-makers from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are major buyers. The hair mostly goes into processing and making of new wigs and there is a great demand for long hair, specially the hair of ladies, said a senior official of Tirumala Tirupati Devsthanam (TTD). Tirumala is one of the most popular destinations among devotees all over the world and every year more than one crore devotees visit the temple and make offerings. The TTD gets an annual revenue of more than Rs 400 crore through the contribution of the pilgrims in the Hundi.
The temple has been in the news recently for many other reasons. The Tirumala temple has got the worlds biggest Solar powered cooking system, which can cook 30,000 meals per day.
It is also the first Hindu temple to get its priests trained in martial arts for the protection of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple with out any weapons. K Seshadari of Ashtalakshmi Temple at Chennai is imparting martial arts training to the priests of the Sri Venkateshwara temple.
Local authorities say that it is not the first time that human hair was stolen from the temple complex. The Tirumala police has registered at least five such cases in the recent years. Two employees and two outsiders have so far been arrested for this offence and the cases are pending in the court, a local head constable Munikrishna said. Officials say that the security problems have increased after the appointment of casual workers for shaving the heads of pilgrims at Kalyanakatta. Getting one's head shaved is part of the ritual of the devotees visiting the temple of Sri Venkateshwara atop the Tirumala Hills. The hair is then collected and sold by the temple authorities in an auction, which fetches Rs 50 crore per annum.
Exporters as well as the wig-makers from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are major buyers. The hair mostly goes into processing and making of new wigs and there is a great demand for long hair, specially the hair of ladies, said a senior official of Tirumala Tirupati Devsthanam (TTD). Tirumala is one of the most popular destinations among devotees all over the world and every year more than one crore devotees visit the temple and make offerings. The TTD gets an annual revenue of more than Rs 400 crore through the contribution of the pilgrims in the Hundi.
The temple has been in the news recently for many other reasons. The Tirumala temple has got the worlds biggest Solar powered cooking system, which can cook 30,000 meals per day.
It is also the first Hindu temple to get its priests trained in martial arts for the protection of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple with out any weapons. K Seshadari of Ashtalakshmi Temple at Chennai is imparting martial arts training to the priests of the Sri Venkateshwara temple.