SABARIMALA: Tension prevailed at the Nilakkal pilgrim base camp on Tuesday as hundreds of devotees, including a large number of women, lodged in makeshift sheds began chanting prayers and started checking vehicles to prevent women in the age group of 10-50 from entering the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple.
The situation took a turn for the worse when a female devotee — Ratnamma, 60, an Adivasi working at the Nilakkal Estate of the Travancore Devaswom Board — attempted suicide by hanging from a tree branch in protest against the Supreme Court order allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple.
Fortunately, the timely intervention of policemen saved the life of the woman as they cut the rope used for the suicide attempt.
A group of female devotees, after stopping pilgrim vehicles, prevented women — including girls in the age group of 18-20 — from going beyond the Nilakkal transit camp on way to the Lord Ayyappa temple.
After a fiery verbal duel between the young women and the devotees, the women returned after the intervention of the police personnel.
In the afternoon, hundreds of devotees joined the prayer yagna in Nilakkal. The organisers of the prayer yagna said it will continue on the five days of the monthly poojas till the Ayyappa temple closes on October 22.