TTD hair sale set to rake in `200 cr

HAIR-RAISING TALE

Tirupati: Concerned with the unsold stocks of human hair piled up at the TTD godowns, the temple administration has begun exploring several options to dispose of the unsold stocks to ensure that it manages to reach the targeted revenue during this financial year. The budget estimates of the TTD with regard to the sale of human hair have been steadily going up in the last four years.

But according to the temple administration the revenues from selling the hair have stuck at Rs 200 crore mark for past one year. Though the TTD estimated to earn around Rs 220 crore through the sale of human hair in 2014-15 financial year it did not cross Rs 200 crore.Sources say that one of the reasons for downward trend in the sale of human hair is the fall in quality of hair. The growing use of hair colors was also adversely affecting the quality of hair.

As a result while some varieties were completely sold out, certain variety of hair stocks have remained unsold. The TTD estimated that a total of Rs 145 crore revenue were earned through the sale of human hair during 2012-13, the estimated revenues were pegged at Rs185 crore in 2013-14, Rs 220 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 200 crore for financial year, 2015-16. Faced with this situation the temple administration has started monthly auctions from March in place of quarterly e-auctions this year.

It may be mentioned here that giving away human hair is one of the most popular vows at the Tirumala hill shrine as millions of visiting devotees offer their hair in fulfillment of wishes. TTD segregates the human hair into six categories going by the length and texture of the human hair before going into e-auction.

While the first variety hair is above 31 inches in length, the second variety is between 16-30 inches, the third variety between 10-15 inches, the fourth variety between 5-9 inches and the fifth variety less than five inches length. Grey hair or white hair is the sixth variety.

By Sandeep Raghavan