The 'Aravana’ Prasad of Sabarimala temple will be converted into manure

Decision of Travancore Devaswom Board
Storage of this prasad worth Rs 5.5 crore in 6,65,000 small bins

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) – ‘Aravana’ Prasad is offered to the devotees who come for darshan at the Sabarimala temple. This prasad is given to the devotees in a small container with an image of Ayyappa Swamy. Amidst heightened tensions over the ‘contaminated’ laddus in Tirupati, Sabarimala temple’s prasadam or ‘aravana’ has also come into the limelight. The ‘aravana’ will now be converted into manure. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court in January 2023 claiming that more larvae were found in ‘aravana’ Prasad stored for the last one year; but the petitioners have not submitted any evidence in this regard. Due to this, the Supreme Court rejected this petition.

Though the ‘aravana’ was later found to be safe for consumption, the Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the temple decided to dispose of the stock worth around Rs. 5.5 crore. However, disposing of the ‘ aravana’ in large quantities posed a range of challenges for the authorities. The options of disposing of it in the forest regions faced opposition from the authorities. Though various other options were considered, TDB wanted to ensure that the prasad is disposed of in a scientific manner without hurting sentiments of devotees. Hence tenders were floated for scientific disposal of the ‘aravana’.