Tirupati Temple: As coronavirus instances are on a surge, pilgrimage all more than the nation is getting impacted. Amid this, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) board, which maintains the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple at Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati, has stopped issuing tickets for slotted sarvadarshanam from Monday. The temple is amongst the most visited temples in the nation as it is a big Vaishnavite pilgrimage web-site, and it is the richest temple across the globe based on its wealth and the donations it receives. Under typical situations, the temple witnesses an annual footfall of 3 to 4 crore.
However, now, the temple has announced that maintaining in view the increasing quantity of instances in the city of Tirupati, the board has decided to temporarily cease issuing tokens in the Bhu Devi Complex and Vishnu Nivasam in the city to devotees for paying obeisance at the temple. The board cited the instance of Shirdi Sansthan in Maharashtra, which has temporarily closed the darshan for devotees at the Shirdi temple of Sai Baba due to the increasing quantity of instances in the state. With this selection, the TTD is aiming to avoid the spread of the virus, as devotees ordinarily stand in lengthy lines for tickets for hours collectively.
Asking devotees to cooperate with the selection of the TTD in this regard, the board mentioned that any future selection relating to issuance of tokens taken at a later stage would be communicated accordingly.
Notably, the board had remained shut for 80 days final year for the duration of the very first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, and it had opened its doors for pilgrims in June final year. When it had reopened, it had only only permitted to cater to 6,000 pilgrims a day, a sharp decline from its usual guests in between 50,000 to 1 lakh each day devotees. However, considering that the starting of April, the temple has been witnessing about 40,000-50,000 each day guests. This marked a marginal decline in its guests from March, which had been witnessing more than 50,000 pilgrims each and every day.
These whopping numbers have sustained even as India is witnessing a good second wave of the coronavirus considering that February finish, and is now reporting the highest-ever quantity of each day instances, breaching the highs that it had reached back in 2020. Over the previous couple of days, the nation has been reporting more than 1 lakh new instances of COVID-19, and is now recording each day instances upwards of 1.5 lakh.
However, the board’s selection is for the most effective due to the fact with such higher instances, any big gathering has the prospective of turning into a super-spreader occasion. In light of this, it tends to make sense for the board to take this step.
TTD is the most recent to announce such measures to avoid spreading at temples.
Shirdi’s Shri Saibabasansthan Trust, which manages the Shridi Sai Baba temple, announced that it would stay closed for all devotees for darshan as properly as accommodation beginning April 6, 2021, and this would stay in force till additional notice. Recently UP, which has also been witnessing a big surge in instances, has decided to cap the quantity of guests that can pay a visit to the temples at a time. Meanwhile, in Mathura, Vrindavan, Goverdhan and Barsana, all of which are revered web sites for Vaishnavites due to legends of Lord Krishna, devotees would not be permitted to enter any temple if they are not wearing face masks or are in violation of social distancing norms.