All seven hills of Tirumala belong to TTD

HYDERABAD: Minister for forests S Vijayaramaraju has declared that all the seven hills of Tirumala belong to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) and all lands including the forest area of these hills are under the custody of the TTD.He clarified that there is no dispute on the issue that the seven hills belong to the TTD, but the forests, endowments and revenue department officials were conducting a survey only to determine the borders of the extent of land owned by the TTD.The controversy over the number of hills under the TTD came to the fore about six years ago, following a row between the forests department and the forest wing of the TTD over their jurisdiction.It was unclear as to how many hills come under the TTD administration.A few Hindu organisations raked up the issue and a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the High Court for declaring the exact number of hills following which the state government issued an order declaring that all seven hills belong to the TTD.However, the issue came out once again recently when the state government decided to determine the exact limits of the TTD lands and forests lands to fix the jurisdiction limits.