The scenes of chaos at the Sabarimala temple underline poor crowd management and a lack of coordination among the authorities. The two-month Mandala-Makaravilakku period is the peak pilgrimage season at the hill shrine. An estimated 50 lakh people visited last year; this year’s number is expected to be at least as high. The previous season was largely incident-free. But this year, the first few days saw signs of disorder and then it became utterly chaotic, forcing hundreds to return mid-way through the pilgrimage. The argument for higher arrivals falls flat when one looks at the numbers—while 18,16,588 devotees have visited the temple this year till Thursday, almost a month into the season, the number for the same period last year was more than 18,88,000. So the problem is not the crowd, but how it is handled.
The chaos is being attributed to three factors—ineffective crowd management at the temple, lack of volunteers along the trekking path, and inadequate arrangements to transport pilgrims from Nilakkal, beyond which private vehicles are not allowed, to Pamba, from where the 5-km uphill trek begins. The deployment of police personnel inexperienced in handling crowds and a lack of coordination between the police and the Travancore Devaswom, which manages the temple, are slowing down the pilgrims’ progress. The newly erected stone pillars in front of the steps, besides being an eyesore, are also hampering movement. The crowding at the temple is having a cascading effect on movement along the trekking path and at Pamba. Inadequate bus service is causing crowding at Nilakkal and traffic trouble en route.
The Kerala government shockingly dismissed the situation reports as propaganda. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said they stemmed from “intolerance borne out of political resentment”. However, prodded into action by the same reports, his government took steps that seem to have somewhat eased the situation. Denial will not help—poor crowd management at such a crowded place can have dangerous consequences and there will be a political price to pay too. It is said that the elderly and children comprise about 30 per cent of the visitors this time, so the government cannot afford negligence. It must strictly enforce booking restrictions and deploy an adequate number of trained people to manage the crowds. Smooth pilgrimage must be ensured for the rest of the season.