Sandalwood Plantation for Srivari Ritual Only - TTD Eo

Tirumala, 14 November 2018: TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal said today that in a record manner sandal wood plantation over 100 hectares have been developed on Tirumala hills for sake of rituals to Lord Venkateswara.

Speaking to media persons after an inspection of the Sandal wood plantation near Parveta mandapam in Tirumala along with Tirumala JEO KS Sreenivasa Raju, the EO said the sandalwood plantation had been got up in 2013 with a grant of Rs.76 lakhs from Centre and TTD's own contribution of Rs.50 lakhs.

He said initially plantation was started over 45 hectares but presently the TTD forest department has extended it to nearly 100 hectares. The plantation includes 500 Sandalwood and 500 Red Sanders plants besides Rose wood etc.

He said the Tirumala Sandalwood plantation was unique and TTD spent nearly Rs.10 lakhs annually on its maintenance and the Sandalwood produced here would suffice for 300 years of use in Lord Venkateswara Temple.

The EO said as per directions of the chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, the TTD garden department and the Forest Department have jointly promoted over 10,000 plants of nearly 3500 varieties of flowers along the two ghat roads, walker’s path from Alipiri and also Srivari Mettu at a cost of Rs.3.5 crore.

Earlier the TTD EO also inspected the gardens and flower plants at Vaikuntham Queue complex, Shila Thoranam and the Divyaramam saplings centre at the GNC tollgates and gave several suggestions.

TTD SE Ramachandra Reddy, SE-Electricals Venkateswarlu, DFO Phani Kumar Naidu, VGO

Manohar and others participated in the garden and plantations inspections.