'Reschedule pilgrimage if you're not feeling well', Tirumala-Tirupati board asks devotees

The Tirumala-Tirupati temple authorities have issued an advisory to the devotees to reschedule their pilgrimage to the hill shrine if they are suffering from cough, cold and fever.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams officials are appealing the visiting devotees to come prepared like carrying sanitizers, masks along and to maintain three feet distance to avoid any possible spread of infection from others.

Amid fears of the Coronavirus spread in the southern states, the most popular Hindu temple in the country is reportedly witnessing a drop in the pilgrim numbers.

According to a temple official, the footfall in the last few days has been about 65 thousand every day. Normally, the number of devotees entering the Lord Venkateswara temple daily for darshan is about 75 thousand.

Though the Coronavirus fears are presumed to have restricted travels including pilgrimages, TTD officials are attributing this decline in footfalls largely to the exams’ season of March - “an annual affair.”

"We see such fall in numbers this time every year since most of the school, college exams are held in March. But from mid-April, when the exam season ends, the devotee numbers go up to ninety thousand to one lakh per day,” another TTD official told DH, adding that there is no Coronavirus impact till now.

On Sunday, being a holiday, the temple is stated to have witnessed 79464 pilgrims.

Meanwhile, TTD – the temple management board – is taking precautions to prevent the virus. The queue complexes where pilgrims assemble in big numbers and walk in proximity in narrow queues to the sanctorum are being disinfected every two hours.

A committee is constituted with the health officer and temple officials to closely monitor the Coronavirus situation. If anyone is spotted suffering from even mild fever, a thermal screening will be carried out on the person immediately and if any symptoms are found, he/she would be isolated and sent to the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences in Tirupati for better treatment.

"We took all preventive measures in Tirumala to prevent the entry and spread of coronavirus. We are giving wide publicity through the Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel, radio and constant announcements in places of pilgrim congregation,” the TTD said in a press statement.

SVBC is the TTD run TV channel in various south Indian languages like Telugu and Kannada relaying temple activities and dharmic programmes.

“We are making the public appeals as chances of a virus spread are high in a place always abuzz with pilgrim activity especially at the reservation offices, darshanam compartments and queue lines, Kalyanakatta, Annaprasadam dining halls,” the official further said.