Announcement on ‘daru’ after April 13

Bhubaneswar: With the mission of finding ‘daru’, the neem trees the wood of which is used to make the new idols of the deities, entering fourth day today, the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) is hopeful of announcing the location of the trees after 13th of this month.

Talking to the media on this, SJTA chief administrator Suresh Mohapatra said the Daitapatis have come across a number of neem trees suitable for idols of the deities and they will shortlist a few very soon.

“After consulting respective Dalpatis and servitors, the Daitapatis will inform about the location of darus in writing to the temple administration through the Dalapatis and the SJTA will officially announce about the same. The temple administration expects final report from the team around 12th or 13th of this month,” Mohapatra said.

The official further stated that the temple authorities would take a day’s time before the announcement to ensure basic facilities at the places where the trees are located.

“Since thousands of footfalls are expected at these places to see the neem trees, we need to ensure facilities like drinking water and parking. Besides, we’ll seek the help of the police to control crowd and protection of the trees,” Mohapatra added.

Officials said ‘yagnas’ will be performed near the shortlisted neem trees till they are cut and logs transported to Puri for idol making.