The temple set in once tranquil settings has been receiving more pilgrims than it could accommodate.
Huge crowd at Sabarimala. (Supplied)
After the Tirupati-model queue management experiment failed, the pilgrims’ progress to the Sree Dharma Shastha Temple atop Sabarimala has been painfully slow.
Despite the Kerala government claiming the situation has been under control, devotees of Lord Ayyappa, the celibate God, were facing many hardships, forcing the high court to intervene.
Reports said pilgrims to the hill shrine were made to wait in queues for hours — often even half a day — before they could proceed to the 18 gold-covered holy steps to the temple.
The devotees undergo a 41-day mandatory vratham, or penance, before packing the irumudikkettu — the two-compartment cloth bag — with offerings before they embark on the pilgrimage.
While many take the traditional forest routes, many others arrive at Pampa, the base camp, before hitting the around 50-km forest trail leading to the temple.
However, the pilgrims were made to wait at the Pampa sandbanks for a prolonged period, often extending up to 12 hours, before they could trek to the abode of Lord Ayyappa. Erumeli, the base camp for those taking the traditional route, too, has been bursting at its seams.
An unprecedented rush of devotees during the annual festival season this year has left both authorities on the ground and the pilgrims frustrated. The arrangements made in advance went for a toss as several pilgrims arrived without booking slots on the Virtual Q, an online system initiated to ensure a smooth pilgrimage.
According to Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB)’s special secretary MG Rajamanickam, more than 1,20,000 pilgrims were trekking the hills daily during the current festival season that began on 1 December.
The rush at Sabarimala. (Supplied)
Three decades ago, hardly 10,000 pilgrims visited the shrine located in the Periyar Tiger Reserve in a day.
Though the government attempted to regulate the crowding at the forest shrine by limiting the Virtual Q booking from 90,000 to 80,000 a day, it failed to create any impact. Extending the temple hours by an hour, too, did not help much.
Pilgrims were now waiting for more than 12 hours to get the darshan at numerous locations between Pampa and Sannidhanam, where the temple is located.
Besides, the virtual booking facility, pilgrims could make spot bookings also. However, the high court on Wednesday, 13 December, directed the government to limit the spot booking to 10,000 people.
Besides, thousands reach the shrine through illegal forest routes.
Normally, at least 4,800 pilgrims would go up the 18 steps to the temple every hour during the festival days, but the number would decrease if there were many elderly people.
The police, forest department, and TDB personnel have been working machine-like to prevent untoward incidents on the forest routes leading to the hill shrine.
Authorities tried the Tirupati-model crowd management, but failed as several pilgrims jumped the queue, and took forest routes to Sannidhanam.
Police officers said most pilgrims were from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, while the representation of Kerala-based devotees was relatively less.
File photo of devotees thronging Sabarimala. (Supplied)
The unanticipated influx of pilgrims from outside the state and the inadequate facilities also worsened the situation.
Due to the increase in pilgrims, the police needed to make the appropriate preparations at Sannidhanam and base camps.
With the sufferings of the pilgrims creating headlines in the national media and being mentioned in the Lok Sabha, the state authorities and police regulated the number of vehicles carrying pilgrims to the base camps.
Multiple checkpoints have been opened across Pathanamthitta district and its borders to allow limited number of vehicles to reach the base camps.
As a result, the sight of vehicles ferrying pilgrims from far-off places remaining stuck — often stretching to several kilometres — at different locations for hours has become common now.
Meanwhile, the high court said it was considering sending a 12-member team to investigate the traffic at the pilgrimage destination.
The court also noted that between 5,000 and 10,000 people trekked to Sabarimala without reservations daily, and they were mainly responsible for the present situation.
A lawyer, who visited Sabarimala, informed the court that the pilgrim centre needed more facilities, including in the barricaded queues. The court’s decision was based on his report.
Additionally, the court ordered the authorities to set up meal counters at locations like Ilavunkal. After comparing the data, the court noted that there was no prolonged wait for darshan in the previous years.
TDB President S Prasanth told South First that the temple was now open for almost 17 hours daily. He said extending the operational hours further would be impractical as the priests and employees should have adequate rest.
Sabarimala Temple. (Creative Commons)
Though Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who held two recent online meetings with officials and temple priests, claimed that the situation at Sabarimala was now under control, a lot of devotees could be heard on television channels lamenting about the prolonged hours — often 10 to 12 hours — spent on queues.
They also narrated bitter tales of traffic delays without food, water, or other basic needs.
Ajith V, the police chief for the Pathanamthitta district, told South First that there has been a significant increase in pilgrims to the hill shrine the last week. An average of 92,000 pilgrims, including children, have been reaching Sannidhanam daily, while an equal number remained at different locations waiting for clearance, the officer said.
However, environmentalists and social workers felt the present crowd management measures would provide only temporary relief. They called for lasting solutions to decongest Sabarimala by ensuring specific intervals between the pilgrims’ repeat visits to the shrine located in an ecologically sensitive area.
“It’s true that Sabarimala is busting at its seams during the festival days. However, its legacy as a tranquil shrine has become a thing of the past,” environmentalist VC Balakrishnan said.
Amidst cries for better infrastructure to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims, excessive deforestation, rising pollution, and environmental impact have taken a backseat. Kerala’s third-largest river, Pampa, which flows close to the hills, has turned into a dirt pool.
Compared to last year, the temple’s revenue increased by 65 percent in November and December. There has been a 60 percent increase in pilgrims. TDB’s Prashanth said the numbers demonstrated the urgent need for development projects in Sabarimala.
He also lamented the biggest hurdle — a lack of cooperation by the forest department.
However, forest department officials and environmental groups questioned Prashanth. They pointed at the concrete flooring on the temple premises, which at least two official scientific studies warned might trigger landslides or even earthquakes. Several conservationists said the TDB was concerned only about the revenue from the temple.
An environmental committee of the Kerala Assembly led by former MLA AV Thamarakshan had earlier made 32 recommendations to the TDB for preserving Sabarimala. However, the board did not consider any of them.
The Kerala State Pollution Control Board gave minimal consideration to the recommendations from the same committee to reduce the pollution in the Pampa river, the primary casualty of the shabby treatment.
The river has been the primary source of drinking water for three districts. Between November and January, some 35 million people bathed in it for religious purposes, not just at the Sabarimala foothills but also at Maraman and Cherukolpuzha.
Research conducted by the pollution control board indicated that during the peak pilgrimage season, the total coliform count in the river section near Sabarimala was approximately 1,14,000 per 100 millilitres. It was 380 per 100 ml before the pilgrimage season — much below the permitted 500 per 100 ml.
According to the locals, the main cause of the river’s contamination is the overflow of human waste from septic tanks surrounding the temple, which has approximately 600 permanent restrooms and over 3,000 makeshift restrooms.
Officials statistics said over 2,000 tonnes of human waste were dumped annually in Sabarimala’s open and crude dirt pits. These pollutants enter the rivers Pampa and Achankovil through subterranean and aboveground creeks, endangering the health of pilgrims and people residing downstream.
Additionally, the absence of post-pilgrimage cleanup campaigns frequently contributed to the continuous flow of hazardous garbage into waterways. The temple’s surrounding area has already been transformed into a concrete jungle with indiscriminately built guesthouses and other constructions.
Meanwhile, the high court would be further hearing the crowd-management issue at Sabarimala on Thursday, 14 December.
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