How safe HIMALAYAN SHRINES ARE?

By C. K. Nayak

For the first time in its history 12 people lost their lives in a stampede in one of the most popular pilgrim centre Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrines at Katra in Jammu and Kashmir. The Holy Cave located in the folds of the three peak Trikut mountain at an altitude of 5200 ft now attracts more than a crore devotees every year.

Safety was never a concern for the devotees who used to visit the shrines in the Himalayas where all the three top Gods believed to reside. Even if they die on the way they used to believe that their souls will go to heaven directly. So sure, that some of them in old age used to get their last rites performed before their departure. Normally earlier people in their advanced age or too religious minded used to go to shrines traveling long arduous ways at times on foot for days.

Shrines have become much more accessible with good roads, rail, even in some cases by air. There is all pocket suited accommodation and all related infrastructure in pilgrim towns. Many other small and big places of worship and additional attractions like games park, ropeways have also come up over the years surrounding the main shrines. Hence, the number of people including devotees have increased beyond control. People have also started mixing pilgrimage with leisure tours. In the aftermath of COVID 19 pandemic and extreme summer in plains many resorted to hitting the hills and its shrines as a break.

Even in the case of Vaishno Devi the 12km climb was dangerously bumpy with potholes. Pilgrims were often forced to sleep out in the open near foul – smelling garbage heaps once they reached the top. Because of its size and the small opening in a cave through which pilgrims must crawl to reach the sanctum sanctorum of the Devi, not more than 8,000 pilgrims can worship in one day earlier. Devotees often wait for days on end before getting their turn to worship. And the system had deteriorated into a racket run by godmen and influential pandits who, for hefty sums of money, would arrange for pilgrims to jump their turns or give them more or less time for worship depending on the amount of money that changed hands.

Thanks to the late rpt late Governor of Jammu and Kashmir who took over the shrine overnight and ordered for total overhauling of the entire infrastructure which was supervised by a young collector named Anil Goswami on horseback. The yatra system itself was regularised which works good till date.

But the space of many shrines and its access path remain the same and have not been widened or improved. Some of the Gods and Goddesses in the Himalayan region like that of Vaishno Devi are in deep caves. At a time one person can go inside and come back. But the waiting crowd outside it is too big in size and much impatient which causes rush, long queues and if not controlled properly fatal accidents.

The case in Vaishno Devi was one such accident. The officials said that this is the first such incident at the shrine but raises questions about what officials have often called a “fool proof system” to manage pilgrims. At the time of the incident, about 50,000 devotees had gathered in a new year surge well past the limit of half what is allowed on a normal day as per guidelines of NGTon the wake of COVID 19 outbreak. Officials said that as many as 35,000 people had been allowed to proceed due to Covid curbs for December 31 and January 1.

But this is not an isolated accident in shrines in the Himalayas. Last November, one of the holiest shrines of Kashmir, Khanqah –e-Mohalla, caught fire and much of its upper portion went up in the flames. Thanks to the intervention of the fire brigade officials and the local people the fire was put off in time to stop it from spreading down. A few months later a fire broke out at Dastigeer Sahab (RA) mosque, but again due to the alertness of devotees it was extinguished quickly. It is not just the shrines that are vulnerable to fire and other dangers, even the devotees aren’t safe once inside the holy places.

In a freak incident an old ceiling fan fell on a devotee at the Asar–I- Sharief Shehri shrine at Kalashpora, Srinagar causing his near death. The Intizamia Committee of the shrine has complained that ceiling fans in the shrine installed forty years back are rusty and old and no longer dependable. The Waqf authorities, despite repeated messages, didn’t repair or replace the fans, the committeesaid. This looks surprising since along with the many fold increase in devotees the earning of the shrines has also increased by leaps and bounds.

A look at the track record of the state government in preserving the shrines in Jammu and Kashmir which hosts many shrines of all religions, is not very heartening. In 2012, a fire gutted the 245-year-old Dastageer Sahib Shrine. A committee was set up by then Chief Minister Mr Omar Abdullah but none of its recommendations has shown results.

And after the fire broke out in Khanqah, the former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti directed the officials to install fire hydrants, smoke alarms and CCTVs to prevent fire occurrence at shrines.

But the directive seems not to have been heeded as no progress has been made to make these shrines fire free. As of now the board has installed cameras only at a few shrines – Assari Sharief Hazratbal, Makhdoom Sahib, Peer Dastigeer Sahab, Khawja Naqashband Sahab, K.K Moulla, Syed Yaqoob Sahab Sonwar, Syed Mantaqi Sahab Awantipora and Charari-e–Sharief. There are over 93 shrines and mosques that are under the control of the board. For the slow pace of the work, the waqf board blames PDD, Police, PHE and other departments.

In general, most of the Himalayan shrines are in hill areas prone to landslides, flash floods, severe snows and bad weather which cause many accidents. The 2013 devastating flood at Kedarnath is yet to be forgotten. In June that year a mid-day cloudburst centred on Uttarakhand caused devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Though some parts of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in India experienced the heavy rainfall, some regions of Western Nepal and some parts of Western Tibet also experienced heavy rainfall.

As of 16 July 2013, according to officials more than 6000 people were presumed dead since their bodies were never to be found from the tonnes of debris and gushing water. Destruction of bridges and roads left about 300,000 pilgrims and tourists trapped in the valleys. The Indian Air Force, the Indian Army, and paramilitary troops evacuated more than 1,10,000 people from the flood-ravaged area. There are also isolated but severe terror attack on way to famous Amarnath in 2017 killing 8 pilgrims though devotees and tourists are rarely targeted by militants since they are main sources of locals. But at the end of the day the call of the God or Goddess in a near haven atmosphere attracts all.

Source: Himalayan News Chronicle