With just hours left for the Makaravilakku festival at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, almost all vantage points at the hillock here have been occupied by pilgrims.
Devotees have been camping at makeshift tents erected at different locations, waiting to catch a glimpse of the celestial light, Makarajyothi. The crowd on the hillock had begun to swell from Friday evening itself. The curbs on entry of people notwithstanding, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) expects up to two lakh people to attend the festival on Monday and has arranged 10 points in the hillock for worshipping the Deeparadhana ritual to be performed at Ponnambalamedu — a remote hill in the shola forests facing the Sannidhanam.
