SABARIMALA/ KOCHI: Poor crowd management at Sabarimala Sannidhanam coupled with lack of coordination between Devaswom employees and police has led to chaos at the hill shrine. During the past couple of days, many devotees ended their pilgrimage at Pandalam Ayyappa Temple following news about the delay for darshan at Sabarimala.
A source said the average number of pilgrims climbing the Holy Steps was 75 per minute till December 7. After the new batch of police personnel took over for crowd management at the Holy Steps and Sopanam on December 8, the number plunged to 60 people per minute. Due to this, the queue extended up to Marakoottam and there was heavy rush at Pampa as police stopped pilgrims from proceeding to the hill shrine, given the rush.
A batch of 12 police personnel is deployed on either side of the sacred steps to help pilgrims climb easily. Every day they work for 21 hours in three batches. Similarly, 15 police personnel are deployed at Sopanam (in front of the sanctum sanctorum) for crowd management. They play a crucial role in ensuring the free flow of the pilgrims. It is alleged that the inexperience of the police personnel deployed at the sacred steps led to the crisis.
“We had managed up to 1.25 lakh pilgrims a day at Sabarimala years ago when there were no modern communication systems. We used to select people with dedication for service at sacred steps and Sopanam. They used to volunteer for the job. We used to facilitate an average number of 90 pilgrims at the sacred steps a minute. So 5,400 persons climbed the steps a minute and 1,13,400 people climbed the steps a day. This practice has been discontinued,” said a retired police officer who has 25 years of experience in crowd control at Sabarimala.
As per information provided by police, an average of 80,000 people have been visiting the temple daily during the past one week after booking through a virtual queue while the average spot booking is around 10,000.
“The service of Ayyappa Seva Sangham volunteers in providing assistance to the ailing devotees and managing emergencies cannot be ignored. However, they have been removed and daily wagers have been deployed for the purpose. Devotion and dedication are key for effective crowd control at religious places and I think the lack of dedication has led to the crisis,” he said.
There are three factors contributing to the chaos at Sabarimala. They are poor crowd management at Sannidhanam, a lack of adequate bus service from Nilakkal to Pampa and an absence of volunteers along the trekking path, said a senior officer.
“Before the 2018 floods, 4,200 vehicles were provided parking space at Pampa. This was a great solace to people arriving in small vehicles. Now everyone needs to depend on KSRTC buses and the corporation is not operating an adequate number of services. The pilgrims reach Pampa after hours of arduous trekking and they are made to wait for hours to reach Nilakkal. If you provide one bus for 1,000 people, there will be rush and the children and elderly suffer, “ said a youth.
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