Massive demonstrations and turmoil engulfed the state of Kerala over mismanagement of the crowd in the Sabarimala Temple, which has witnessed a stark rise of pilgrims this year, with the most being 1,20,000 Devotees on Tuesday, which has never happened before. The concerning news of rush and crowd, where pilgrims have to even stand in queues for 18 hours or more, has reached the Kerala High Court, whose Devaswom bench has issued a slew of directions for crowd control. BJP Yuva Morcha workers are also protesting outside the Secretariat in Sabarimala accusing the state government of mismanagement. They are not only protesting against the long queues, but also the lack of basic facilities on route to the shrine.
Overcrowding has always been a matter of concern in Kerala’s Sabarimala temple, however, the protests that are going in the state for past few days comes in the backdrop of tragic death of a 11-year-old girl on Tuesday, who fell unconscious while trekking to reach the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala due to crowd. On Wednesday morning, another 45-year-old pilgrim, collapsed and died on the Sathram-Pullumedu forest path to Sabarimala. According to police officials, he collapsed at Zero Point near Sita Kulam.
The Devaswom Bench stated that they have received more than 300 complaints regarding the inconveniences at the Sabarimala temple, and regarding this it has directed the concerned authorities to provide pilgrims with adequate facilities. It has also directed the Executive Magistrate to ensure cleanliness on the site and avoid unnecessary parking charges. However, the inconsiderate Pinarayi Vijayan government has responded that the pilgrims are “trying to portray that there are problems with crowd management”, rather than fixing the chaotic situation. Kerala CM stated that situation at the Lord Ayyappa shrine was in control, adding that government machinery was intervening diligently in temple matters.
Since December 6, 2023, the number of pilgrims visiting the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala has steeply risen, leading to massive queues. At every hour, around 4000 to 5000 people reach the “pathnettam padi” or the 18 holy steps. Some of the visitors have even tried jumping barricades, leading to stampede-like situation and chaotic scenes, which leads to pilgrims falling down and getting injured. Following the chaos recorded at Lord Ayyappa’s shrine at Sabarimala temple, the Kerala government made a decision of reducing the virtual queue booking limit by 10,000, setting the maximum queue booking limit to 80,000 per day. The government has also decided to extend the darshan timings by an hour, seeing the footfall of the pilgrims.
The overcrowding situation at the temple has also brought into light the “new stone pillars” in front of the 18 holy steps. The pillars, erected to hold the under-construction hydraulic roof for the protection of the holy steps, have to be held by devotees and police personnels, leading to hampering the movement of the pilgrims. Calling the erection of new stone pillars as “nuisance”, a police official agreed that they are unable to manage the crowd and ensure speedy movement of the pilgrims on the holy steps due to the presence of the stone pillars.
The chaotic scenes at the Sabarimala temple have been going on for a past few days, of which heart-wrenching visuals have emerged. In a viral video, a young devotee at Sabarimala can be seen crying for help from a police officer. The video suggests that the child had gotten separated from his father, and was crying with folded hands asking police official to help him. In several other visuals that have emerged young kids can be seen crying inconsolably due to shortage of basic amenities like food and water as well as crowd control measures.
This year the Ayyappa devotees have been finding it hard to complete pilgrimage due to congestion in the temple, forcing many pilgrims to return without reaching Lord Ayyappa’s shrine. There is not just chaos in the temples, but also in buses and other public vehicles. Thus, the South Railway division of the Bharatiya Railways has announced operation of a Vande Bharat Sabari special train between Chennai Central and Kottayam, with an aim to address the increased demand due to rush season at the Sabarimala temple.
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