Sabarimala witnessed the heaviest rush of the ongoing pilgrim season on Saturday with hundreds of devotees from different parts of the country offering prayers at the Ayyappa temple.
Pilgrims, including women and children, had to wait for four to five hours inside the packed barricades on the Marakkoottom-Sannidhanam path to reach the temple in the morning.
The pilgrims’ queue for darshan extended up to Marakkoottom on the trekking path when the shrine was opened at 3.30 a.m.
Pilgrim flow regulated
The police regulated pilgrim flow to the trekking path from Pampa on Friday evening with a view to easing rush at the Sannidhanam. The pilgrims were blocked at Pampa at regular intervals on Friday night.
Aravana stock
Devaswom Executive Officer V.N. Chandrashekharan Nair said the TDB had sufficient stock of Aravana and Appam to meet the demand of pilgrims. He said there was a buffer stock of over 20 lakh tins (250 ml) of Aravana and 3.30 lakh packets of Appam as on Saturday morning.
The Health department opened 15 emergency medical centres along the Pampa-Sannidhanam path and at Karimala, offering round-the-clock health-care service to the pilgrims. Oxygen parlours have also been set up at these centres. The department has trained Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sanghom volunteers to man the oxygen parlours.
