PATHANAMTHITTA: Problems in crowd control and low number of pilgrims at the beginning of Mandala season due to rains have severely affected Sabarimala revenue. There is a reported drop of Rs 20 crore in revenue compared to last year as the pilgrimage completes 28 days.

There is a drio of about one and a half lakh pilgrims. This has affected the coin revenue, and sales of appam and aravana. The total revenue so far is 134.44 crores. At the same time, this was Rs 154.77 crore last year.

The Devaswom Board attributed the drop in devotees in the first few days to the floods in Chennai. This is not the right justification. Pilgrims come not only from Chennai, the farthest part of Tamil Nadu. Pilgrims from Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra are not affected by Chennai floods.

Pilgrims were overwhelmed by the congestion last week which reduced the devotees from neighboring states in the following days. Unable to scale the 'Pathinettam Padi', many performed ghee abhishekam at the panthalam and returned heartbroken.

With this, the High Court intervened and ordered that the number of devotees should not exceed 90,000 per day.

For the last three days, most of those who have come for darshan are Malayalis. The Tamil Nadu government has written to Kerala asking them to provide infrastructure and safe darshan for the pilgrims.

Backfired

1. Non-deployment of experienced police at 'Pathinettam Padi' has affected the movement of devotees

2. Devotees had to queue up to 18 hours to get darshan. This took a toll on children and women

3. The vehicles were stopped for hours on the forest road with no food or water

4. Parking sytem in Nilakkal failed. Bus services including KSRTC chain service has been disrupted

Will go to court to lift booking

By the time the Mandala period is half over, the huge crowd will come to an end. This time, however, the Devaswom Board is concerned that the virtual queue booking fixed at 80,000 and spot booking at 10,000 will continue to result in revenue loss. With the appointment of experienced policemen for traffic control, smooth darshan has been possible for four days. The number of people climbing the 18th step increased to 75 per minute. Earlier it was less than 60. After providing better facilities, the board may approach the High Court to raise the booking limit. Last year, there were days when one and a quarter lakh people came to Sannidhanam without complaint.

Number of pilgrims

After 28 days this year: 17, 56, 730

Last year: 19, 09,241

Income in 28 days

(Last year in bracket)

Appam : 8,99,05,545 (9,43,54,875)
Hundi offerings: 61,91,32,020 (73,75,46,670)
Show : 41,80,66,720 (46,45,85,520)
Accommodation (Online) 34,16,425 (33,92,050)
Offering (Online) 71,46,565 (1,14,36,17)
Food Donation 1,14,45,455, (1,20,71,97)

Total Income Rs 134,44,90,495 (154,77,97,005)

Last year total devotees-Rs 65 lakhs

Income-Rs 351 crores