Sabarimala tightens restrictions: Spot bookings cut to 5,000 and forest route access curbed

Sabarimala: Authorities have imposed new restrictions on the Sabarimala pilgrimage, sharply reducing spot bookings to 5,000 until Monday, down from the earlier limit of 20,000. Access along the traditional forest route has also been tightened, with pilgrims said to obtain passes from the Forest Department, according to reports. However, the procedure for securing these passes has not been clearly specified.

The daily cap for darshan has been set at 75,000 devotees as part of the updated crowd-management measures. Travancore Devaswom Board president K. Jayakumar welcomed the court order, saying it would help streamline pilgrim movement.

Earlier, in an effort to manage the heavy rush of pilgrims, authorities had capped spot booking at 20,000 people per day. More than 30,000 pilgrims were arriving through spot booking at the time, making crowd control increasingly difficult. Those who arrived after the limit was reached were allowed darshan the following day, officials said.

To ease the flow, seven additional booking centres were slated to begin operations at Nilakkal, and pilgrims were permitted to enter the Nadapanthal only as queues at the Sannidhanam cleared.