M A I N   N E W S

Tirumala e-auctions human hair,
gets richer by Rs 133 cr!
Suresh Dharur/TNS

Hyderabad, October 11
It is truly a hair-raising story! Human hair offered by devotees at the popular Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh has created a storm in the global market after temple authorities decided to e-auction the humble offering of pilgrims.

In the maiden e-auction by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), an autonomous body which manages the affairs of the country’s richest temple, a whopping Rs 133 crore was generated by selling 65,000 kg of various categories of hair. Fortynine traders from across the world took part.

“We opted for e-auction this year to avoid manipulation by some bidders who formed a ring causing loss to the TTD. As a result, we got Rs 30 crore more than what we earned last year,” TTD Financial Advisor and Chief Accounts Officer V Bhaskara Reddy said. In the past, temple authorities used to issue offline tenders for disposal of human hair, which saw limited participation from traders.

A majority of pilgrims visiting the abode of Lord Venkateswara tonsure their heads and offer the hair to the Lord, a practice in vogue for centuries. On an average, the hill shrine attracts over 50,000 pilgrims every day and the number exceeds 1 lakh on weekends and special occasions.

Human hair is broadly divided into five categories depending on its length and texture. The hair is used for making of wigs. Long and uniformly trimmed hair, known as remy hair, has a big market in Europe and the US where it is woven into wigs. Most of the non-remy hair, broken and short, has a huge demand in China, which makes wigs and sells those to the American or African market, especially Nigeria.

In the domestic market, there is a big demand for Tirumala hair in Mumbai, where it is sold by agents for making wigs for film stars. Before being stored, the hair, which is weighed in the presence of an auction officer, is manually sorted out and sun dried -- 1,200 kg at a time -- under polycarbonate sheets.

The auctioning of 11,500 kg of the first variety of hair (length of above 31 inches) fetched Rs 23.25 crore; 21,300 kg of second variety of hair (length 16-30 inches) fetched Rs 39.49 crore; third variety of hair weighing 1.3 lakh kg (length 10-15 inches) fetched Rs Rs 66.37 crore; 900 kg of fourth variety hair (length five-nine inches) fetched 36 lakh and 3 lakh kg of fifth variety of hair (less than five inches) fetched Rs 2.31 crore.