Kukke Temple income drops by 4%

Mangaluru: The Kukke Sri Subrahmanya Temple— the richest muzrai temple in Karnataka—situated at the foothills of the Western Ghats in Dakshina Kannada district, has retained the first slot in terms of revenue generation in the state, but its annual income has dipped to Rs 92.09 crore. In 2017-18, the temple had recorded annual income of Rs 95.92 crore, and in 2016-17 the temple’s income was Rs 89 crore.
The reason for the income declining was due to incessant rain that flooded the region, and there was a downward trend in the footfall in temples in the district for nearly three months. Ravindra M H, executive officer, Kukke Subrahmanya Temple, speaking to TOI, said that income reduced for the temple as the coast witnessed heavy rain, resulting in floods last year. Most of the roads that connected the district to the rest of the state got battered and were closed for months, restricting the movement of devotees’. At times, the roads on all three ghats—Charmadi, Shiradi and Sampaje—were closed due to frequent landslides. This compelled devotees to cancel or postpone pilgrimages. The situation improved only after October.
This fiscal year the temple income is down by Rs four crore from last year’s income. In 2016-17, the income was up by just Rs 1 crore from the previous year. The temple’s income had risen by Rs 9 crore in 2014-15, from Rs 68 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 77.6 crore. In 2006-2007, the temple’s income was just Rs 19.76 crore.
According to Ravindra, a large chunk of the temple’s revenue was acquired through performing various sevas, with some having a long waiting list. This year, the collection from sevas has touched Rs 40.80 crore. It is followed by income from hundi collection (Rs 17.44 crore) and interest from bank savings has fetched Rs 18.43 crore. The income was hit due to fall in sevas, hundi collection and banking savings.
Income has also been earned by the temple from agriculture (Rs 2.14 crore), rent collected from buildings (Rs 61.51 lakh), offerings (Rs 3.66 crore), rent from halls (Rs 4.37 crore) and development funds (Rs 4.69 crore).
The total annual expenditure of the temple was Rs 51.1 crore. Ravindra said that a major chunk of money was spent on various sevas (Rs 18.4 crore), payment of salaries (Rs 7.19 crore), mass feeding (Rs 7.4 crore ) and other expenses like construction activities, agricultural expenses, annual fair, cultural programmes and electricity expenditure. The temple has also given Rs 3 crore for flood relief.
The temple draws people who perform the Sarpa Samskara, Sarpa Dosha and other pujas. Among its several high-profile devotees are cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Javagal Srinath, Ravi Shastri and Venkatesh Prasad, actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty and Juhi Chawla as well as dozens of politicians. BJP party chief Amit Shah, who is now home minister, too visited the temple last year.