Pilgrims’ weekend progress leaves towns exhausted

The just-concluded extended four-day weekend has left the pilgrimage centres in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikmagalur districts gasping for breath.

Home to some of the country’s best managed pilgrimage centres like Dharmasthala, Kukke Subramanya, Udupi, Kollur, Kateel, Sringeri and Horanadu, these districts have received the maximum number of pilgrims during the weekend.

Such was the rush of pilgrims that every last kg of rice, dal and vegetables in the temple storerooms were used for feeding the devotees and every bottle of potable water was gulped down. Private hotels and commercial establishments also received a record number of customers during the weekend.

At Dharmasthala, the authorities had anticipated the huge rush and had made special arrangements to help all the pilgrims have darshan and receive anna prasadam at its vast dining halls. To manage the crowds entering the somewhat limited space in the inner poulis, the pilgrims were asked come in single file queues.

Traffic crawled on the Bangalore-Mangalore highway and up to Gundia the highway resembled any Central Business District road of Bangalore. According to personnel manning the Channarayapatna toll plaza, over 2.5 lakh vehicles of all classes passed through the plaza during the weekend.

The flood of vehicles at the Gundia crossing and at the temples in Dharmasthala and Kukke Subramanya created parking problems. In addition, the pothole-marked Shirady Ghat road did little to help the situation.

“I opened my eatery at 6 am on Sunday but all my stocks were exhausted by 11 am. I had to indent for more rations from the nearest towns like Buntwal and Belthangady, but few things had to come from the Mangalore wholesale market,” said Suresh Poojary, a eatery owner in Dharmasthala.

“I had stocked enough fruits like apples, bananas, grapes, water melons, papayas, chikkus and many other varieties but all of them were consumed within a matter of 3-4 hours on Sunday, Monday was even worse as the stocks lasted for only for two hours,” said fruit vendor Ramanna Shetty from Dharmasthala.

The taxi market also experienced the weekend boom. Not even one taxi was available in Mangalore city.

“All of our taxis have been booked for tours towards pilgrimage centres. I have myself booked over 500 taxis of all types to various destinations. The rates have also gone up. For a non-airconditioned taxi, the rate went up from Rs5.50 to Rs8.5 per km, while other vehicles cost nothing less than Rs14-16 per km. The 15-seater vehicles were just not available,” said Ishaq Ahmed, a tour operator.