Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar/Kakatpur, Apr 8:

Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief administrator Suresh Chandra Mohapatra today said the dalapati (team leader) of the Banajaga Yatra team will inform the SJTA about the location of the darus (suitable neem trees for carving of idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Sudarshan) latest by April 13.

daru khoja

Mohapatra said following receipt of information from the dalapati of the Banajaga Yatra team in writing which is expected to come latest by April 13, the SJTA will announce the location of the daru after a gap of a day or two in order to make arrangements for protection of the assigned daru as well as to make available basic facilities for the expected crowd of devotees at the location.

He said the location of the daru for making of the idol of Lord Sudarshan will be announced first, to be followed by the announcement regarding the location of the second daru after a gap of seven days.

“For the last four days, Daitapati servitors have been visiting places in groups for identifying suitable darus.  In the process, they have identified several neem trees. They will shortlist them and four darus will be finalized after thorough scrutiny by their dalapati, upadalapati, four badagrahis and seniors. They will inform the temple administration in writing through their dalapati. The temple administration in turn will announce them one after the other. After one daru is announced, it has to be immediately given protection and arrangements have to be made so that they can be shifted to that place. Arrangements have to be made for police protection, crowd control parking etc. at that place. Lord Sudarshan’s daru will be announced first. Most likely after finalization, they will be submitting a report latest by April 12-13 to us. On receipt of it, we will take some time - at least one day - for barricading and creation of other basic minimum facilities in view of crowds which could go beyond thousands," Mohapatra said.

Today is the eleventh day of the Banajaga Yatra and the fourth day since Yatra team members began their search for darus a day after receiving agyanmala from Maa Mangala on completion of her majana niti on April 3.

Team members are fanning out to different places in different directions from the Deuli Mutt at Kakatpur on a daily basis by splitting themselves into small groups for the last three days to identify and locate suitable darus for carving of new idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Sudarshan. Yatra team members are camping at Deuli Mutt ever since their arrival in Kakatpur.

“I along with a team had gone to Kanas, Khordha and Baghamari in the morning; there we have found some suitable darus. Today we will place it before our core committee meeting in the night and after detailed discussions we will take a decision. The SJTA chief administrator was here yesterday. He had discussions with us and we are hopeful of finalizing the darus by April 12-13 and making an announcement thereafter. The government has to make arrangements before we shift to the location of the assigned daru. Otherwise it will be very difficult for us to move there. The particulars of the location will be kept secret till arrangements are complete,” said Ramakrushna Das Mohapatra, upadalapati of the Banajaga Yatra team and president of Daitapati Nijog.