Telangana: No safety for Rajanna Kodelu in Vemulawada
There is no safety for Rajanna Kodelu (bull) in Goshala run by Sri Rajarajeshwara Swamy temple, Vemulawada. It is once again provided with the death of eight 'kodelu' on Friday. Temple authorities have reportedly buried them in secret the nearby rivulet
Rajanna-Sricilla: There is no safety for Rajanna Kodelu (bull) in Goshala run by Sri Rajarajeshwara Swamy temple, Vemulawada. It is once again provided with the death of eight ‘kodelu’ on Friday. Temple authorities have reportedly buried them in secret the nearby rivulet. Presence of excess number of bulls and lack of supervision are said to be the reasons for the deaths of kodelu.
Though the capacity of goshala is 600, there are 1250 kodelu in it. Per month, authorities are spending Rs 5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh to provide fodder, medical aid and other facilities. However, the amount was not enough for such a big number of bulls. As a result, kodelu developed health problems and died with sickness. ‘Kodemokku’ is a famous ritual in Vemulawada shrine and the temple is getting about Rs 22 crore revenue through kodemokku every year.
Devotees strongly believe that they will get virtue if a kode is offered to Emulada Rajanna (Sri Rajarajeshwara Swamy of Vemulawada). So, a majority of the pilgrims, who visit the shrine, will offer ‘kode’ to the presiding deity. Devotees will also believe that they will get more virtue if a ‘kode’ (bull) is donated to the temple. Farmers, who grew bulls in their cattle shed, donate them to the shrine. Some others donate animals by purchasing from others.
As many devotees donate bulls, the number of animals has gone up. So, the temple is also maintaining a Goshala at Thippapur to look after the wellbeing of animals. As the strength of bulls exceeded, there were incidents of animals dying of illness due to lack of fodder, facilities and medical aid. To overcome the problem, authorities had launched a programme to give bulls to farmers free of cost to utilize them for agriculture purposes.
After receiving applications from farmers, bulls used to give them after thoroughly verifying pattadar passbooks and Aadhar cards besides taking affidavits to take care of kodelu. However, it was stalled during the last six months following the misuse of bulls by a person, who was allocated a number of kodelu.
