Vyapa Reddy, 61, from Andhra, will be leaving Sabarimala heart broken this time. The Ayyappa devotee from Kadappa had gone through a harrowing experience, a first for him, starting from Nilackal, the base camp of Sabarimala.
He remained stranded at Pampa from Thursday afternoon till Friday evening and had been forced to spend several hours on the slush-filled steps leading to the Pampa Ganapati temple.
Though he had darshan at the Ayyappa temple on Friday evening, he had not recovered from the shock of being woken up in the middle of the night by a group of men in khaki and thrown out to nowhere.
Deprived of food, drinking water and other basic facilities, Mr. Reddy along with his 200-odd group of pilgrims had remained at a loss as to whom they should approach for respite. The had to wait for several hours to get permission from the police to proceed further.
‘An ordeal’
Mr. Reddy said they reached Pampa after a similar ordeal during their day-long wait at Nilackal.
“I have been undertaking the pilgrimage for the past 15 years. But it never had been so difficult,” he said.
His fellow pilgrims, Sunil, Suresh, Channa Rao, had similar tales to narrate.
They had all registered on the Kerala Police’ Digital Crowd Management website to witness the opening of the sanctum sanctorum and were assigned a darshan time of 6 p.m. on Friday.
The flood-ravaged Pampa, which is bereft of basic pilgrim facilities, made their wait at Pampa arduous.
Heavy rain
Adding to the woes of the stranded pilgrims, heavy rain lashed throughout the day. Things took a worse turn, as the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) officials kept on feigning helplessness in addressing the devotees’ concern as the police had taken over the entire region.
“We have been trying our level best to ensure every possible pilgrim facility at Pampa and Nilackal. But the police intervention and adverse climate have been upsetting our plans,” said a senior TDB official.
Meanwhile, an uneasy calm prevailed in Sabarimala and surrounding areas over the purported visit of women in the restricted age group.
