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Sabarimala, Nov 20 (IANS) Kerala’s Sabarimala continued to witness a huge influx of pilgrims on Thursday, with devotees waiting for up to 12 hours for ‘darshan’ despite efforts to regulate entry.
Every minute around 65 pilgrims were seen climbing the sacred 18 steps. Following High Court directions issued earlier this week, the Travancore Devaswom Board has now limited the daily darshan to 75,000 devotees.
Spot bookings have been reduced to 5,000 as of Monday, and officials have been directed to strictly enforce virtual queue booking to manage the surge.
The first major crowd of the Mandala-Makaravilakku season on Tuesday exposed significant shortcomings in crowd management and infrastructure.
More than one lakh pilgrims had visited the hill shrine, leading to queues stretching several kilometers long and complaints about drinking water supply, cleanliness and inadequate rest areas.
Although crowd-control measures were taken, the arrangements failed to cater to the huge turnout.
Reviewing the situation, the Kerala High Court rapped the authorities for lack of preparations, and questioned why coordinated planning was not started at least six months ago.
The Court observed that there was no justification for such chaos on the second day of the pilgrimage season and stressed on strict adherence to the booking protocol.
It further directed that entry through virtual queue booking should be allowed only six hours before and 18 hours after the scheduled darshan time, without any leniency.
On Wednesday, 80,615 devotees visited, including about 20,000 who entered through spot booking – four times the permitted limit.
This caused the number of tourists to spiral out of control, leading to overcrowding in key areas including Sannidhanam and the trekking path.
Pilgrims raised concerns over inadequate drinking water and delays in medical aid.
With the Mandla-Makaravilakku season gaining momentum, officials now face intense pressure to streamline the digital booking system, strengthen ground-level coordination and prevent any repeat of Wednesday’s chaos.
The board has promised immediate corrective action, while the High Court has warned that compliance will be closely monitored.
A state minister, on the condition of anonymity, told IANS that this unprecedented rush of pilgrims was stage-managed by a section to create confusion, and this was done as the state is on the verge of two-phase local body elections.
“The temple on the hill has multiple entry points, and not all the entry points are monitored. Those who wanted to create confusion ended up sending pilgrims through unmonitored entry points and thus resulted in such a huge rush of pilgrims,” the minister, who did not wish to be identified, said.
–IANS
SG/DPB