Mansa temple braces for spike in crowds for Navratri this year

The shrine board of Mansa Devi Temple — one of the oldest shrines of northern India — is all geared up for holding its Covid-restrictions-free Navratri festivities this year, with darshans being promised for every devotee who turns up. Navratris this year is scheduled to be held from April 2 onwards.

The festival being just two days away, the Mansa Devi Temple has seen an obvious jump in the number of devotees flocking it daily, especially in lieu of most Covid restrictions being rolled back. Sharda Prajapati, secretary of the board of Mansa Devi Temple, said “The expected number of devotees this year will be around 1-1.5 lakh per day which is approximately more than double when compared to last year.
This time we will be offering all the facilities which were not present during last year, including setting up additional dispensaries and holding cultural functions.”

She further said that this year the board will try and compensate for the last two years in terms of preparation and execution of the overall amenities provided.

Last year, due to Covid, a token system for darshans was introduced in order to regulate the process of social distancing. This resulted in only 100 darshans in an hour. But this year the token system has been done away with as there are no directions regarding Covid from the government. Only the VIP darshans will have a token system, allowing 100 darshans per hour. Officials of the shrine board said that with an increase in footfall, the donation count is also likely to witness a huge rise this year.