Sabarimala temple: Over 1 lakh pilgrims book for darshan

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 12: In a record number of bookings for darshan, over 1 lakh devotees thronged the Sabarimala temple on Monday. 1,07,260 devotees have booked darshan timings, according to temple officials.

The administration has put stringent security precautions in place while keeping the tremendous footfall in consideration.

Sabarimala Special Officer Harishchandra Naik said, "Devotees will be escorted from Pampa to Sannidhanam in a controlled and segmented manner. police officers have been deployed at each point for this purpose. The segment rotation is a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident due to the crowding of devotees," according to a report.

Naik also added, "Devotees waiting in the queue will be provided light food and drinking water. Apart from the police, the services of RAF and NDRF personnel will also be used to control the traffic."

In the wake up of an increased number of devotees, the darshan timing has been extended by one hour.

On Friday, there were 97,310 pilgrims, and on Saturday, there were 88,480. On Sunday, over 60,000 people used the virtual line system for darshan.

During the last two years, there was a steep fall in the number of pilgrims due to the Covid related restrictions.

On Saturday, the huge influx caused a slight ruckus on the trekking path. The Kerala High Court has requested a report from temple authorities.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will reportedly hold a high-level meeting on Monday to review the arrangements.

Earlier on November 24, Kerala Devaswom Department Minister K Radhakrishnan claimed that around 2.5 lakh pilgrims visited Lord Ayappa Temple at Sabarimala in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district in the first six days of the ongoing pilgrimage season.

The minister said, "2,61,874 pilgrims have visited Sabarimala in the first six days of this pilgrim season. There are indications that the number of devotees will increase in the coming days."

The Lord Ayappa Temple in Sabarimala opened its doors to worshippers for the annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku celebrations on November 17, kicking off the two-month-long yearly pilgrimage season.