Sabarimala pilgrimage season ends in 102 deaths, what next?

SABARIMALA - Yet another two-month-long Sabarimala pilgrimage season came to an end when the doors of the famous temple were closed early Thursday. But a larger question remains open - who will shoulder the responsibility for the 102 lives lost for no fault of theirs in last week’s stampede.

The stampede occurred on Makar Sankranti day at Pulumedu, a forested area about 30 km from the temple, when pilgrims were climbing down a hillock after watching a celestial light - the most important event of the pilgrimage season - on the first day of the Malayalam month, Makaram.

The celestial light appears three times on the horizon, shortly after dusk. This single event draws close to a million devotees, who fill up all available space on the hillocks in and around the temple town.

The blame for the tragedy has to be taken by the authorities, 46-year-old Hari Kumar, a driver by profession hailing from Thiruvalla and a staunch devotee of Lord Ayyappa, told IANS.

“The crowds of people arriving at the temple have gone up drastically in the past one decade. The steep increase is on account of an increasing number of devotees from the South Indian states,” Kumar said.

“Those in charge of controlling traffic, especially on the Thekkady border, have to be alert. If they had done that this time, the Pulumedu tragedy could have been avoided,” he added.

Of the two main points of entry to the temple town, it is the Thekkady-Kumily stretch which is the most treacherous because of the topography and the narrow roads and it is on this route that Pulumedu sits.

Thirtyfive-year-old K. Babu, who owns a small plantation near Kumily where the autopsies of those killed were conducted, remarked that it is sad that the government fails to learn from past mistakes.

“Was it not in 1999 that 54 lives were lost in a similar stampede on the day the celestial light appears on the horizon? We wish to know what steps did the officials take based on the report that was submitted then,” Babu said.

“The callousness of officials should stop and the political parties should stop the blame game and see that they sit down and work out a strategy to see that such man-made tragedies are avoided,” he added.

The state cabinet is meeting in Thiruvananthapuram Thursday and topping the agenda is the stampede episode. The findings of the report of the judicial probe would also be announced.

“I am told that the last time a judicial probe was done in the state with the service of a sitting high court judge was way back in the mid-1990s,” said J. Kiran, who hails from Kanjirapally en route to Pulumedu.

“If the government is responsible, they should take out the previous two or three reports that have been given in the past one decade and the best that they can do is to work out a programme to see that the pilgrimage becomes an easy affair,” he added.

The Sabarimala temple is situated on the Western Ghat ranges at an altitude of 914 metres above the sea level and four km uphill from Pamba in Pathanamthitta district.

Pathanamthitta legislator K. Sivadasan Nair, who has taken part in several discussions ahead of the pilgrimage season, said the need of the hour is proper scientific planning and “if we start that now, we could make huge positive gains ahead of the next pilgrimage season”.

“I am told that the National Remote Sensing Centre in Hyderabad has in principle agreed to come to our help to prepare a satellite imagery of the places in and around the Sabarimala temple,” Nair said.

“I will request the state government to seek their help because they have used this technology in disaster management in Andhra Pradesh,” he added.

With two major tragedies occurring in the past 12 years and more than 156 lives lost, all are hoping against hope that the first step the authorities would do is to go into the three reports that have been submitted on what needs to be done.

With the Kerala High Court suo motu asking the state government for a detailed report on the tragedy, hopes are also being expressed that authorities will act now. If not, then there would be none to be blamed but an insensitive government which fails to wake up from tragedies.