With the scrawny-looking horse in tow, Ramu took out a painstaking saunter for 48 km from his native Damalcheruvu village to Tirupati, not knowing the futility of the exercise.
The poor farmer bought the horse at a premium to donate it to Sri Venkateswara Gosamrakshanasala, the dairy farm run by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) management in Tirupati. It is the practice in the region to donate cows and bulls to temples in fulfilment of certain vows, either as a thanksgiving or in anticipation of a favour. Ramu had prayed to donate a horse to the Tirumala temple, in return for a favourable situation at the domestic front. However, he is unaware that all animals are not welcome at the dairy farm.
The TTD’s dairy farm is primarily a ‘Goshala’, where native breeds of cows and bulls are housed. This apart, it is home to 8-10 horses and a similar number of elephants, part of the temple paraphernalia, meant to be used during processions and other rituals in the temples in Tirupati and Tirumala. However, the dairy farm is flooded with offers of donation of goats, mules etc. which the management is rather forced to reject. “We basically house the animals that we require for our needs, besides providing shelter to cattle. Wild animals are strictly unwelcome and the space constraint prohibits us from housing other animals,” says the S.V. Gosamrakshanasala Director K. Haranath Reddy.
Some high profile devotees, and sometimes even state governments, donate elephants, for which the dairy farm insists upon production of no-objection certificate from the wildlife authorities of the respective states to keep off legal tangles. Animals of lesser significance are not at all accepted, while horses and elephants are also turned back ‘when there is no requirement’.
Devotees like Ramu perennially remain in the dark on the TTD’s rules and on reaching Tirupati, face a stalemate as to what to do with the donation (read ‘horse’ in this case), when it is turned back…!
