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The influx of pilgrims at Uttarakhand’s Char Dham shrines is many times greater than its capacity, said Director-General of Police Ashok Kumar, urging devotees to stagger their visits because the yatra will continue until November.
Since it opened on April 25, more than six lakh pilgrims have visited Kedarnath. According to Ajendra Ajay, head of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee, nearly five lakh worshippers have visited Badrinath since its opening on April 27.
Kumar told reporters, “The rush of pilgrims at the Char Dham temples at present is many times more than their capacity. It is causing all sorts of inconvenience. Traffic management has become difficult. The trek routes to the temples often get jammed and ‘darshan’ is not smooth for the pilgrims.”
He added that many pilgrims believe that the yatra is only for the months of May-June.
“I want to tell them it will go on till the second week of November. Visiting the temples after mid-September is the ideal time for the yatra as the weather is fine. So pilgrims can stagger their visit to the temples to avoid inconvenience,” Kumar said.
He also requested pilgrims from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana heading to Gangotri and Yamunotri not to take the Mussoorie road, which is notorious for traffic bottlenecks.
Instead of going through Mussoorie, pilgrims from these states should go through Vikasnagar, Nainbagh, and Damta, he said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has also urged pilgrims to continue to the Char Dham shrines only after receiving weather information to avoid problems along the way.
“Sometimes there is rain, sometimes there is snowfall. The pilgrims must update themselves about the weather before proceeding on their journey to the Himalayan temples as we do not want them to face any inconvenience,” Dhami told reporters.
The Met Office issued a ‘orange’ advisory for three days on Tuesday, warning of heavy rain and hailstorm in numerous locations.
“On an average, more than 20,000 pilgrims visit Kedarnath and Badrinath daily,” Ajay told PTI, “while their carrying capacity per day should be around 10,000.”
He stated that not everyone who visits the temples is a pilgrims.
“A considerable chunk of the present rush consists of YouTubers and travel vloggers who visit the temples not purely for the purpose of pilgrimage but to increase the popularity of their vlogs or YouTube channels,” Ajay said.
“They often add to the trouble of genuine pilgrims as they break into song or dance anytime anywhere, showing total disregard for the religious traditions associated with the temples,” he said.
“The large influx of vloggers and YouTubers is another kind of disaster that has befallen the Himalayan temples in recent years,” he added.
Source:HT
