Sabarimala temple reopens amid heavy rainfall

As the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala opened for the two-months-long annual pilgrimage on Monday evening, pilgrims faced hurdles in arriving to the hill shrine due to rough weather.

While the water level of the Pamba river at Sabarimala was high since Sunday, many approach roads to the temple situated in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala were flooded. The Sabarimala region witnessed heavy rains on Monday evening as well. As per a weather forecast, Kerala is likely to receive heavy rains for the next few days.

Keeping in mind the situation, restrictions were imposed on the movement of pilgrims to Sabarimala. It was already decided to allow only 30,000 pilgrims per day at Sabarimala owing to the Covid situation. A high-level meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday decided to further reduce the number of pilgrims depending upon the weather condition.

Pilgrim turnout at Sabarimala temple has been affected for the past few years owing to the tension over issue of women's entry, natural calamities and the Covid-19 pandemic. During the famed Makaravilakku festival last year, only around 5,000 pilgrims were allowed entry to the temple, as opposed to over a lakh during pre-Covid times.

Also Read | Sabarimala pilgrimage from Nov 16; Demand for relaxing restrictions for pilgrims

The fall in pilgrims has badly hit both the revenue of the temple and the Travancore Devaswom Board that manages it. The board has been struggling as around 1,200 other temples under the it were also surviving on the revenue generated from Sabarimala. While the Sabarimala temple used to get a revenue of Rs 200 crore during the normal pilgrimage season, last year it was only around Rs 15 crore.

The temple opened for the pilgrimage on Monday evening with 'Thantri' Kandararu Mahesh Mohanaru leading the rituals. Taking over of the new 'melsanthi' (chief preists) was the main ceremony held during the day. N Parameswaran Namboothiri was recently selected as the new 'melsanthi' and Shambhu Namboothiri from Kozhikode as 'melsanthi' of the Malikapuram Devi temple at Sabarimala. Pilgrims will be allowed entry to the shrine from the early hours of Tuesday.

The Mandalapooja season, which is the first phase of the pilgrimage, is from November 16 to December 26 and the 'Makaravilakku festival', which is the second phase of pilgrimage, will be from December 30 to January 20. The 'Makaravilakku' ceremony is on January 14.

Check out latest DH videos here