Sabarimala: Despite the Kerala Government’s claim that the unprecedented rush at Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple during the last few days which caused misery to pilgrims was owing to the arrival of more devotees compared to last year, data reveals that it is not so.
According to official figures, the number of pilgrims who arrived at the temple from the start of the ongoing Mandalakalam-Makaravilakku season to Friday was 17.56 lakhs, which is 1.50 lakhs lesser than last year.
Government authorities recently said that devotees had to wait in queues for up to 18 hours this year as the number of pilgrims went up this year. However, data reveals that only 90,000 pilgrims had booked slots every day in the virtual queue from December 7 to 11, compared to 1,10,634 on December 9 last year and 1,19,908 on December 12, 2022. On December 9, 2022, 98,627 of those who had booked on virtual queue visited the temple and 97,488 on December 12.
This year, the number of slots for virtual queue was fixed at 90,000, which was later limited to 80,000.
Friday’s situation
Incidentally, the rush eased at the temple on Friday, compared to the previous days. Even though 81,868 pilgrims had booked slots, only 58,964 visited the shrine till 6 pm.
Vehicles heading to the shrine were not blocked anywhere and the Manappuram at Pamba was almost deserted. Moreover, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation(KSRTC) conducted services smoothly on the Pamba-Nilakkal route.
Revenue dips
The fall in pilgrim arrivals has also been reflected in the income from various sources at the temple. In fact, the total revenue during the first 28 days of the current pilgrimage was Rs 134.44 crore, which is Rs 20.33 crore less than the corresponding period last year - Rs 154.77 crore.
There has been a dip of Rs 11.84 crore in ‘aravana’ sales, Rs 44.49 lakh in ‘appam’ sales and Rs 4.65 crore in ‘kanikka’.
This year, an average 2.25 lakh containers of ‘aravana’ were sold during the initial days of the pilgrimage, which later went up to 3.25 lakhs. Three days ago, sales touched 4.25 lakhs.
“On December 14 this year, the total revenue was Rs 6.21 crore, compared to Rs 6.21 crore on the same day last year,” said Travancore Devaswom Board president P S Prasanth.
Fake news: Case filed
In a related development, the government informed the Kerala High Court that cases have been registered at Sannidhanam and Pamba police stations over fake news which claimed that the police had assaulted pilgrims at Sabarimala.
The government also told the court that the crowd control at the shrine was smooth.
The advocate of the KSRTC informed the court that a sufficient number of buses was arranged for pilgrims.
A division bench comprising Justices Anil K Narendran and G Girish posted the next hearing of the case related to unprecedented crowds at the shrine to December 18.
Today in Sabarimala
3 am: Shrine opens for the day
3.30 am – 11 am: Abhishekam
11.30 am: Kalabhabhishekam
1 pm: Shrine closes
3 pm: Shrine opens
7 pm: Pushpabhishekam
10.50 pm: Harivarasanam
11 pm: Shrine closes for the day
