Comments
To break coconuts at temples to propitiate gods and goddesses is an age-old ritual. However, the relentless onslaught of the Covid virus and the lockdowns have drastically reduced the footfall in temples leading to a steep fall in the coconut-breaking vazhipadu (offerings) in many temples in Kerala, including the Sabarimala Hill shrine.
In the pre-Covid days, coconut-breaking vazhipadu at the Pazhavangadi Ganapati Temple in Thiruvananthapuram would average 75,000 nuts a day, going up to one lakh on special days. Now, it has dropped by a third. On the eve of the World Coconut Day on September 2, the temple management told BusinessLine that on Sundays the decline was almost 60 per cent.
The entire value chain that thrived around coconut offerings at temples has been hit. Normally, private vendors near the temple sell coconuts to devotees, who break it at the shrine, taking only a small piece as prasadam and leaving the rest behind. The temple auctions the broken coconut to copra-makers, earning a good revenue.
But, now, with the offerings coming down, the vendors have vanished, forcing temple administrations to source coconuts.
Restriction on pilgrims
P Vinodkumar, Chairman, Consortium of Coconut Producing Companies, Palakkad, said that around two crore pilgrims visit Sabarimala every Mandalam season and bring on average five coconuts as their offering. This number has come down with the shutting of the temple last year and subsequent restrictions on darshan .
Typically, raw nut prices surge in December during the peak pilgrimage season, touching ₹ 50 per kg in 2019. However, now the prices are hovering at ₹30 per kg. The pandemic has also affected tender coconut sales. Of the annual production of 21,207 million nuts, 15 per cent of the harvest is tender coconuts. The lockdown has affected sales of tender nuts.
Incidentally, the theme of the World Coconut Day this year is “Building a safe, inclusive, resilient and sustainable coconut community amid Covid 19 pandemic and beyond”.
India tops in coconut production and productivity in the world with a total of 2.19 million hectares under cultivation and a productivity of 9,687 nuts per hectare.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.