AHMEDABAD: Apart from footfalls, donations have fallen at the famous Gujarat temples due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The donations received by the four major temples in the state show that the average drop for the year 2020-21 is about 37% compared to the previous year.
The shrines in question are Somnath temple in Veraval, Dwarkadhish temple in Dwarka town, Ambaji temple in Banaskantha, and Ranchhodrai temple in Dakor.
While the slide is in the range of 20% to 55% for these temples on the standalone basis, between them the collections have dropped from Rs 119.35 crore in 2019-2020 to Rs 74.91 crore in 2020-21.
Somnath has recorded the steepest drop in donations from Rs 44 crore in 2019-2020 to Rs 20.24 crore in 2020-21. “Somnath temple has registered more than a 50% drop in donations this year due to the Covid situation,” said P K Laheri, secretary of the Shree Somnath Temple trust. “The temple was closed for a long time during the nationwide lockdown and hence the income from allied services — be it dining or accommodation — was affected.”
Laheri said that footfalls had reached 70% of pre-Covid levels a few months ago. Now, there has been a sharp decline again due to the rising number of corona cases.
Ambaji temple has seen a modest drop among the four in donations received for 2020-21. As against Rs 51.63 crore in 2019-2020, it drew Rs 41.34 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2021.
“The donations plummeted from Rs 30-35 lakh per week to Rs 15-18 lakh per week. This change occurred three weeks ago,” said S J Chavda, deputy collector and administrator of Shri Arasuri Ambaji Mata Devasthan Trust. The trust received donations online as many devotees avoided travel.
Ravindra Upadhyay, the manager of the Dakor temple, said there has been a 60% drop in the number of visitors compared to pre-Covid times. The temple was closed during the Holi festival to check the spread of Covid. The temple usually pulls in 3 lakh visitors during this period.
Like many other shrines, the famous Dwarkadhish temple re-opened from June last year after remaining shut for three months. From Rs 11.72 crore in 2019-2020, donations in 2020-21 fell to Rs 6.35 crore.
In pre-Covid times, 12,000 to 15,000 devotees visited the temple daily. “This went down to 3,000 daily visitors last year after the temple re-opened,” said a source in the temple trust. “The number had slowly gone up to 7,000 some time ago.”