The three deities of Gosaninuagaon temple in Berhampur are bejewelled with brass instead of gold ornaments.

The reason behind this is 13 “tola” gold and eight kilo silver ornaments of the deities worth around Rs 10 lakh and brass ornaments worth Rs 50,000 were stolen from the storeroom of this temple on January 8.

“Late Govind Chowdhury constructed the temple in 1960 and this is for the first time that the deities will have brass jewellery instead of gold ornaments,” said Panchanan Chowdhury, the hereditary trustee of the temple.

All the three deities are decked with brass ornaments and the Lord Jagannath and Balabhadra appear with hands and feet made of brass. While Lord Jagannath holds a “chakra” (disc) in his right hand and a conch in the left, Lord Balabhadra appears holding a plough in his left hand and a mace in the right.

“The brass ornaments were donated by some devotees and are worth Rs 65,000. These include two pairs Sri Hasta (hand), Sri Payar (feet), three Sri Mukuta (big crown), Sri Chakra (wheel), Sri Gada (bludgeon), Sri Padma (lotus) and Sri Sankha (conch), among other things,” said Panchanan.

“The ornaments, which were looted on January 8, were about 40 years old and were used during the ‘besha’ of the three deities on special occasions.”

“We have now fitted 17 CCTV cameras inside the temple,” Panchanan said.

Amitav Thakur, deputy inspector general of police,southern range, Berhampur and Berhampur police chief Anirudh Kumar Singh have urged 75 temple trustees in and around Berhampur asking them to install at least two CCTV cameras inside and outside the temples to curb burglaries soon after the loot at Gosaninuagaon temple.