PATHANAMTHITTA : In just 12 days since the Sabarimala temple opened for the Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season, it witnessed a 54 per cent increase in devotees compared to last year.
Over 10 lakh devotees have visited Sabarimala since Vrishchikam 1. The highest crowd was witnessed on Thursday with 87,999 pilgrims.
This surge in the number of devotees also led to a significant boost in revenue for the temple and the TDB. According to TDB president P S Prashant, over 3.5 lakh more pilgrims visited Sabarimala compared to last year, generating a revenue of over Rs 63 crore. Aravana sales alone contributed to over Rs 28 crore, a significant increase of Rs 9.5 crore from the previous year. Additionally, 3.5 lakh more appams were sold, totalling Rs 39 lakh, surpassing last year’s numbers.
Smooth darshan despite increased crowd
The TDB president said that it is an achievement that, despite the large number of devotees compared to last year, the efforts to ensure smooth darshan bore fruit.
Highlighting the new season with almost no complaints he said that the support provided by the chief minister and ministers was vital, in addition to the joint efforts of more than twenty different government departments and agencies.
He was speaking at a press conference held at the Sannidhanam Conference Hall along with Board members A Aji Kumar and G Sundaresan.
Emerging statistics
Compared to the last Mandalam season, there has been an increase in revenue with a hike of over Rs 15.89 crore as per the figures for the first 12 days.
The total income generated during this period was over Rs 63.01 crore. A huge increase in the sale of appam and aravana has also been recorded in this pilgrimage season.
Through the sale of aravana, the hill shrine earned as many as Rs 28.93 crore in twelve days compared to the previous period’s collection of Rs 19.4 crore. This is an increase of Rs 9.53 crore.
Appam garnered an additional revenue of over Rs 39 lakh. Appam sales marked a new record at Rs 3.53 crore this season, compared to the previous sale of Rs 3.13 crore.
Concerns
The TDB president pointed out that the thantri has already clarified that throwing clothes in the Pampa river and rolling coconuts at Malikappuram are not part of Sabarimala rituals.
The board is trying to create maximum awareness among the devotees and also planning to appoint staff to prevent such practices. The Guruswamis, the group leaders, across the states will be informed about this, he said.
About the successful implementation of Virtual Queue, he said that as many as eight counters have been started in Pampa alone to allow the maximum number of devotees to enter through spot booking. Devotees will only need to carry their Aadhaar card, he said.
Tamil Nadu native collapses, dies
A pilgrim from Tamil Nadu collapsed and died of heart attack at Sabarimala temple on Friday. According to officials, Anbazhagan, 65, who was standing in line at the queue complex at Sannidhanam for darshan around 3am on Friday suddenly collapsed. Though he was immediately rushed to the Sannidhanam dispensary, his life could not be saved. Three pilgrims had died of heart attack on Wednesday and Thursday.