There is heavy rush of pilgrims at Sabarimala in the run up to the Mandalapuja, stretching the pilgrim management protocol in the holy hillock to its limit.
As on Tuesday morning, the queue for darshan at the Sannidhanam extended up to Sabaripeedom. In a bid to manage the rush, pilgrims are now permitted to trek the hill only in batches.
Though the authorities have fixed the daily limit of virtual queue bookings to 80,000, over a lakh devotees each have trekked up the hill in the past three days, says P.S. Prasanth, president, Travancore Devaswom Board. Given the current trend, the overall turnout for the season is expected to cross 50 lakh for the whole season.
In a bid to ease the rush at the pilgrimage zone, the board has now proposed to open a parking lot on the Pampa hilltop. “We have the space to park about 2,000 light vehicles on the hilltop. The board has approached the High Court seeking permission to open this area,” says Mr. Prasanth.
The entry of vehicles to Pampa has been restricted since the devastating floods of 2018. The lack of parking spaces in and around Pampa has been regarded as one of the key reasons for the slower outflow of devotees from the hillock.
“Devotees have to go back all the way to Nilackal, where their vehicles are parked, to commence the return journey. This was not the case till 2018 when adequate parking space was available at Pampa-Thriveni, Chakkupalam, and the hilltop etc, “ says an official.
The delay in clearing the backlog at the pilgrimage zone, meanwhile, has also affected the traffic to the hillock as roads as far up to Kumily in Idukki and Kottayam town are experiencing the impact of slow-moving traffic. With the parking lots at Nilackal overflowing, the police have imposed a regulation on the onward journey of pilgrim vehicles from the various stopover points such as Erumely and Kalanjoor.
Though the board has restricted the virtual queue bookings for December 26 and 27 at 64,000 and 70,000 respectively, the actual pilgrim turnout during these days is expected to go above the limit.
“The influx of devotees through the forest routes, especially via Sathram, has been high this season. This is primarily due to the huge hold-ups in the trek from Pampa,” says a senior TDB official.
