SABARIMALA: The Sabarimala hill shrine which is open for five-day monthly poojas witnessed an unprecedented rush of devotees on Saturday, with thousands waiting in long queues for hours for their turn to have darsan. As the queue extended beyond Saramkuthi when the temple was opened at 5 am, the pilgrims were forced to wait for darsan for almost six hours.
When the large number of pilgrims swelled to unprecedented levels, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) changed the timings of darsan extending three hours to manage the situation. This led to continued darsan until 3 pm instead of the usual closing time of 1 pm.
In the evening, the temple reopened at 4 pm, an hour earlier than the scheduled time of 5 pm.
The surge of pilgrims, which began in the early hours of the day, kept the authorities on alert with the police personnel swinging into action to control the heavy flow of devotees.
An additional 150 police personnel, including officers, in addition to the existing police force on duty, were deployed to control the heavy flow.
“The TDB and police were completely unprepared, as it has been a very long time since the temple has seen such a heavy rush during the monthly poojas,” said a TDB official.
A long queue was witnessed at the counters to collect tickets and prasadam. The authorities imposed restrictions on the parking of vehicles due to heavy rush. The pilgrim vehicles were sent back to Nilackal parking area after dropping devotees at Pampa.
According to official estimates, the footfall during this month’s poojas has increased significantly compared to previous periods. On Saturday alone, over 52,000 devotees booked for darsan, with around 30,000 completing it by 3 pm.
Since the temple opened for the monthly poojas, a total of 1.22 lakh devotees have visited. On the first day, 11,965 devotees booked for darsan, followed by 28,959 on the 17th, and 53,955 on the 18th.