Chardham shrines in Uttarakhand are witnessing more than double their carrying capacities of pilgrims, impairing state administration’s preparations to manage crowds on the roads and compelling the government to seek help from other states.
The Union Home Ministry has also pitched in to support the Uttarakhand government in its crowd management exercise on chardham routes.
All four Chardham temples are overflowing with pilgrims much higher than their carrying capacities. On one hand, state officials were worried regarding the crowd management on the hills while on the other hand, temples’ premises especially Kedarnath and Yamunotri, are also facing accommodation scarcity for the pilgrims.
State officials have claimed that crowd management on Chardham roads is a major issue even 15 days after the pilgrimage started on May 10.
Going by the daily figures of the pilgrims flow, Kedarnath temple witnessed around 33,000 devotees paying obeisance till May 23 as against its carrying capacity of 13,000 pilgrims. Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines’ combined daily inflow of pilgrims has been around 26,000 pilgrims which is twice that of their carrying capacity of 13,000.
The State government has fixed 5,000 for Yamunotri and 8,000 pilgrims for Gangotri shrines as maximum daily visitors’ strength for this pilgrimage season.
Devotees visiting Badrinath per day stood at around 26,000 but that too was around 8000 more than the carrying capacity of 18,000 as decided by the government.
Talking to ‘The Statesman’, a senior state government officer deployed on Chardham route admitted that state machinery was rendered helpless with the massive flow of devotees after the pilgrimage began on May 10.
“The crowd was much more beyond our comprehension, proving our preparation insufficient to deal with the situation. There was huge scarcity of accommodation and other resources at various places enroute the chardham temples.
”Situation was so bad that the Centre had to pitch in with its offer to help in crowd management. However, the situation is coming under control now as the daily footfalls have decreased even though its still higher than the carrying capacity of the shrine areas,” informed this officer under condition of anonymity.
It’s significant that the crowd management crisis in the first fortnight of this pilgrimage season was so grave that it forced state Chief Secretary Radha Raturi to seek help from her counterparts in other states. She has written at least three letters to the states including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal to allow only those with valid registration numbers to come to the pilgrimage.
Meanwhile, Badri Kedar Temple Committee (BKTC) chairman Ajeyndra Ajay said, “Crowd-management had become a big challenge for the administration as pilgrims’ daily flow was much more than the carrying capacities of four shrines. Movements on Chardham routes were too slow. However, things are improving now and will settle down in a week or so. Now the Centre has also taken cognizance of the crisis and offered to help with extra forces for crowd management.”