With less than a week left for the Mandalam season at Sabarimala to end, the authorities have decided to permit the devotees reaching Erumeli to ascend the hills through the 42-km forest route.
Officials of the Travancore Devaswom Board said the devotees would be permitted to take the route in strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocol. Prior to opening the route, a joint team of revenue and forest officials had inspected it to assess its condition, besides the threats posed by wildlife.
Sangh Parivar organisations had staged a protest at Erumeli some days ago demanding to open the route.
The route
The forest path, which takes the Karimala-Valiyanavattom-Cheriyanavattom-Pampa-Marakkoottom route, used to receive a good number of pilgrims every year till the authorities closed it in 2020 in view of the pandemic situation. Of this, the opening portion of the route from Koyikkakavu temple to Kalaketty is under the Kottayam Forest Division while the remaining portion is part of the Periyar Tiger Reserve (West).
Meanwhile, the authorities have also decided to increase the daily limit of pilgrims to 60,000 from the current 45,000. The move follows a sharp surge in daily footfalls at the temple.
8.11 lakh so far
As per official estimates, 8.11 lakh devotees visited the temple till Sunday morning. Of this, Saturday (December 18) reported the highest number of visitors for a single day — 42,870. The income during the season rose sharply to over ₹55 crore.
The numbers, though pale in comparison with the ones in the pre-pandemic days, still mark a major improvement over the scaled-back season the previous year. The overall income during that season, when the overall footfall had stood less than one lakh, had dropped sharply to ₹21 crore as against the ₹270 crore in 2019-20.
The TDB hopes the numbers will rise further on the occasion of the Mandala puja on December 26.
The restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 had adversely impacted TDB’s revenue sources with the board suffering a loss of over ₹600 crore since March last year. Following this, the board had to approach the State government seeking financial assistance to prepare for the pilgrimage season this year.
