Pesticides in cardamom: Sabarimala loses nine crore rupees

PATHANAMTHITTA: The Travancore Devaswom Board suffered a loss of nine crore rupees due to the inability to sell at Sabarimala the Aravana made from cardamom which was found to contain pesticides. This was discovered during the period 2021-22. A loss of Rs 6.65 crore was incurred due to the unsold storage of 6.65 lakh tins of Aravana. An additional expenditure of Rs 1.16 crore was incurred to remove the old Aravana from Sabarimala and destroy it. The loss of nine crore rupees includes the Aravana container, other materials purchased for the manufacture of Aravana, and the amount spent on court proceedings. However, the board has not officially released the loss figure.

Cardamom was purchased from a private individual for Rs. 1600 per kilo back then. Following the controversy, the private individual was excluded and some organic cardamom was purchased from the Forest Department and Rebco. The price per kilo was Rs. 4000-6000. This too was excluded after the inspection found that the grade and quality were low. The board's new decision is to purchase cardamom directly from cardamom societies through tender.

Cardamom required in Sabarimala for a year: 20 tons

Cardamom mixed with pesticides added to aravana: 44.920 kg

''We are trying to buy the cardamom required for Sabarimala from the cardamom societies through tender processes

-A. Ajikumar, Member

Travancore Devaswom Board