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STATES,
ORISSA
Robbing
The Lord
The corruption
juggernaut rolls into Puri. Timber worth Rs 22 lakh meant for the rath
yatra remains unaccounted for.
By
Ruben Banerjee
It
all started some months ago with an innocuous inquiry initiated by a lowly
forest guard who was stumped by the sudden availability of quality timber
in the temple town of Puri. Though tree felling is now strictly regulated
and all saw mills in the town are closed following a Supreme Court directive,
several people were found to be trading in precious wood, and many of
them had courtyards stacked with logs.
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| Forest
dept. uncovers systematic pilferage of timber meant for chariots |
The district
forest officer (DFO) was duly informed and soon forest officials were
on their way to unearth a major racket wherein timber provided by the
state Government for constructing the fabled chariots of Lord Jagannath
and his divine siblings, Balabhadra and Subhadra, was being systematically
pilfered.
For time
immemorial, the rath yatra has been a matter of reverence, with lakhs
of devotees converging on Puri to catch a glimpse of the gods making their
annual sojourn along the town's main thoroughfare. What the forest officials
have now unearthed is sure to outrage the devotees in a state where Lord
Jagannath is the presiding deity.
Every year,
elaborate arrangements precede the festival, with the state Government
bending over backwards to facilitate the making of the chariots. Timber
of the best quality and adhering to strict specifications is supplied
to the organisers for free, with the chief minister himself overseeing
the arrangements.
Year after
year, the organisers of the rath yatra demand and secure at least 14,000
cu ft of timber for the construction of the chariots. However, the huge
stocks of timber in Puri after this year's rath yatra made the Forest
Department smell a rat.
Puri DFO
Sanjeev Chaddha and his officials initiated a thorough investigation into
the matter. After this year's rath yatra, when the chariots were being
dismantled, Forest Department officials painstakingly measured every bit
of the wood that had gone into the construction of the three chariots.
Their worst
fears came true. Somebody had been robbing the state in the name of the
Lord. The forest officials found out that no more than 6,000 cu ft was
actually used in the chariots. Only 1,517 cu ft of timber had been used
in the chariot of Lord Jagannath, while the chariot of Subhadra used 1,153
cu ft and that of Balabhadra used 1,256 cu ft. Together, the three chariots
accounted for only 3,926 cu ft of wood. Add to this the mandatory wastages
plus the wood given to the chariot makers as wages, and the total utilisation
of wood could not exceed 6,000 cu ft. The balance 8,000 cu ft of wood,
estimated to be worth almost Rs 22 lakh, remains unaccounted for.
Tricky
Situation: Chaddha has sent a startling report to his superiors, detailing
the systematic pilferage of the timber. The report has obviously embarrassed
the Government, and is therefore being kept under wraps. Chief Minister
Naveen Patnaik isn't saying much. "This is serious if true. It hurts
our religious sentiments," is all he will admit.
Forest Department
officials are convinced that a caucus of greedy temple administrators
and dishonest chariot makers has deliberately pegged the timber requirement
much higher than what is actually needed. "Lord Jagannath is obviously
being used as a smokescreen to make money,"says Biswajit Mohanty
of the Wildlife Society for Orissa.
But what
has raised the hackles of the green lobby is that to meet the greed and
the irrational requirements of the chariot makers, 300 to 400 mature trees
are being felled every year. That too, when the state's forest cover is
dwindling at an alarming rate.
To keep
the supply of timber for the car festival going, the Government has undertaken
a special plantation programme called Jagannath Bana Prakalpa at an estimated
cost of Rs 6.5 crore. The pilferage, say environmentalists, defeats the
very purpose of the programme.
There have
been protests from other quarters too. "The pilferage must stop,
if there is any," says Puri Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingh Deb, considered
the first disciple of the Lord in the state.
But plugging
the pilferage is not going to be easy. Traditionally, only a select group
enjoys the hereditary rights to make the chariots. What if these people
refuse now? The hereditary keepers of the faith are in no mood for penitence.
Already, veiled threats are being issued, with some of those involved
in organising the rath yatra saying that from next year, they would stay
away from the festival. "Let the DFO take over," they say.
While the
Government ponders what best it can do under the tricky circumstances,
devotees can only rue that the Lord's journey is trapped in an unholy
jam.
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