DNA's headlines reads : "Panel to rid Sabarimala of unruly priests, politicos"

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s official now. The Sabarimala Sri Dharma Sastha Temple is one of the most undisciplined temples in India. A high-power committee, formed by the Kerala HC in January to look into the allegations against the shrine, has called for a clean-up of the system.

 The three-member commission, headed by Justice Paripoornan, submitted before the High Court on Wednesday 79 suggestions to set the divine house in order. Though the panel could not confirm any allegations of corruption, it came down upon the temple officials for misconduct and mismanagement. The commission urged the government to facilitate complete de-politicisation of the temple. It wanted a high-level officer to be in charge of the temple administration. The fundamental problem lay with the political appointment, the commission observed. The recruitment should be free from nepotism and bribes.

 On the financial front, the richest temple was under a cloud of doubt. The revenue of the temple must be monitored by a qualified chartered accountant or an officer not below the rank of additional secretary, the commission, which probed 19 allegations against the Travancore Devaswom Board, recommended. 

 The commission, which grilled tantrics and priests at the hill shrine, was critical of the holy men’s credentials. The commission wanted to make matriculation the minimum qualification for the posts in the temple. Priests and tantrics should be knowledgeable and reputable, it observed.

 The shrine was in an embarrassing position when one of its tantrics, Kandararu Mohanaru, had to step down after he was involved with a woman of doubtful character last year. He had alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched against him by astrologer Parappanangadi Unni Krishan, who said the Lord was unhappy over the women’s presence.

 The commission also criticised Unni Krishnan’s tantric consultation. After the astrologer made the statement, Kannada actor Jayamala said that she had actually touched the idol a few years ago. A crime branch team had pointed to a nexus between the astrologer who conducted the four-day ritual at Sabarimala and the Bangalore-based actor.

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Sabarimala (PTI): The holy hill of Sabarimala on Tuesday turned into a virtual sea of humanity as devotees continued to pour in large numbers with the auspicious 'manadala pooja' just two days away marking the culmination of the first leg of the two-month-long pilgrimage of the famed Sreedharma Sastha temple.

More police personnel were deployed at the base camp Pampa and uphill Sannidhanam to manage the crowd that had to wait six to ten hours to have darshan.

The temple authorities said the influx of pilgrims this season was unprecedented as the rush was comparable to the Makaravilakku days in January which used to witness the biggest turn up at the hillshrine.

Besides the main trekking path from Pampa sandbanks, a large number of pilgrims, mostly from Tamil Nadu, were also flowing along the Kumali-Pulimedu route to the Sannidhanam.

Meanwhile, senior IAS officer K Jayakumar, appointed by the Kerala government as Special Officer to Sabarimala on Monday, held a meeting of officials at Pampa to review the preparations for mandala pooja, which falls on December 27.

The procession carrying 'thanka angi' (golden attire) to be donned on the idol of Ayyappa during the mandala pooja would be arriving at Pampa on Wednesday.

The procession carrying the thanka angi, the golden decoration weighing 426 soverign, has set off from the Parthasarathy temple at Aranmula two days back

Pamba (Kerala) : One and a half million tin cans of prasadam (holy offering), helicopter service for people who fall ill and oxygen parlours will be the highlights of this year's Sabarimala pilgrimage season that begins Sunday, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said here Saturday.

Pamba is at the foothills of the temple town and the climb towards the temple begins from here.

Achuthanandan inaugurated the Pamba River Basin Authority at the meeting where eight ministers and top officials of 23 departments overseeing the festival season were present.

"Last season there were issues regarding the smooth supply of the prasadam on account of the shortage of tins. This time we have stocked 1.5 million tins and there will be no shortage. I assure that this time the pilgrimage would be a smooth affair," he said.

Sabarimala temple is all set to receive nearly five million devotees during the two-month-long annual pilgrimage season that begins Sunday.

Photo: Leju Kamal

vigil: The Rapid Action Force taking position before the holy steps at the Sannidhanam on Friday. —

SABARIMALA: Sabarimala has been witnessing the tightest ever security cover in its history since Friday morning.

The Ayyappa temple and its surrounding areas have been closely guarded by machine gun-toting commandos of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) attached to the Central Reserve Police Force and the State police in the backdrop of the anniversary of Babri Mosjid demolition on Saturday.

Inspector-General of Police Arun Kumar Sinha, who is also the police coordinator at Sabarimala, told The Hindu that 1,300 police personnel had been deployed at the Sannidhanam alone. This is besides a 114-strong National Disaster Response Force led by Deepak Dev Menon and a company of the Rapid Action Force led by Assistant Commandant N.K. Singh.

A three-layer system has been put in place at the sanctum sanctorum with the commandos of the police in the innermost layer, the RAF in the middle and the State police in the outer layer, Mr. Sinha said.

The Travancore Devaswom Board has opened a counter with police assistance near the Valiyanadappanthal for keeping mobile phones and shoulder bags of pilgrims before ascending the holy steps. Nine cellular phone jammers have been installed on the temple premises and 40 closed-circuit cameras at select points at the Sannidhanam and on the trekking path up to Marakkoottom.

T. Vikram, Police Special Officer, said vessels carrying ghee for neyyabhishekom would be scanned with the help of X-Ray scanners before being taken to the sanctum sanctorum on Saturday.

A bomb detection and defuse squad has been carrying out continuous anti-sabotage checks at the Sannidhanam and along the trekking path.

Pilgrims coming through the Uppupara route have been diverted through a door-framed metal detector.

The Sannidhanam has been witnessing heavy rush of pilgrims.

Sabarimala, one of the most important pilgrimages in the country, is facing a new threat. Rediff.com's Shobha Warier measures the depths of the crisis, and discusses the possibilities of its solution.

It is reported that 35 million people visited Sabarimala last year. It is also found that every person who goes to Sabarimala leaves behind at least 250 grams of plastic there. That means, last year alone, 8750 tones of plastic was deposited there!
 
Three incidents in the last couple of years made Sreejith E Namboodiri, a priest in an Ayyappan temple in Chennai, take a vow that he would do something actively to free the forest in Sabarimala from plastic.

In Ettumanoor, near Kottayam, when a cow died all of a sudden, a post-mortem was done on it, and the result was shocking to all animal lovers. There was 17 kg of plastic in its stomach. "Because it happened near Kottayam, a post-mortem was conducted. I don't know how many animals in the Sabarimala forest die of consuming plastic thrown away irresponsibily by the devotees. The thought was painful."

The priest's recent pilgrimage to Gomukh cave in Uttarakhand also gave him ideas about how nature can be protected from plastic if the authorities and pilgrims make a little bit of effort.

"At the Gangotri forest check post, we were checked for the plastic items we had with us and were asked to sign the list. We also had to make a deposit there. One gentleman had 28 chocolates with him. When we came back, we were checked again. They also checked whether the gentleman brought back the chocolate covers! I was very impressed with the efforts they take to keep the Himalayas free of plastic," Namboodiri said.

"Immediately, my thoughts went to the piles of multicoloured plastic, clothes and dirt that are left behind by the Ayyappa devotees at Sabarimala. Nobody thinks that we are encroaching into a forest full of trees and inhabited by many animals. We behave as if we have no thought for nature or animals. On the whole, Sabarimala has become a hill of pollutants," he added.

Though Namboodiri has been bringing back whatever plastic bags he -- and the other devotees who travel with him -- uses every year, he feels that he has to do more to cleanse Sabarimala. More awareness has to be created about the dangers of polluting the abode of Lord Ayyappa.

That was how he decided to distribute and popularise 'plastic-free' irumudi kettu (which Ayyappa devotees carry on their heads on the pilgrimage). "These days, Ayyappa devotees buy a kit with lots of plastic packets inside and after the darshan, throw away all the plastic packets there. This contaminates the forest permanently. So, what we do here is, educate all the Ayyappa devotees to pack all the items in butter paper instead of polythene. They also buy cheap raincoats (made of plastic) and throw them away at the foothills," he said.
Namboodiri and three others (T R Anantha Padmanabhan, Bhaskaran Guruswamy and Krishna Kumar) have joined hands and distributed 10,000 pamphlets at various temples urging Ayyappa devotees to keep Sabarimala clean and plastic-free.

Anantha Padmanabhan, who has been walking from Chennai to Sabarimala for the last 15 years, has taken several pamphlets with him to distribute on the way.

Moreover, he says, "Lord Ayyappa is a dhyana swaroopan in Sabarimala. The Bhagavad Gita says meditation has to be done in clean surroundings -- sucho dese pratishtabhya. Similarly, Lord Ayyappa also sits in a place that is clean, inside the quietness of the forest. But what have his devotees done? They have turned the place unclean. So, the initiative has to be taken by each and every bhakta who goes to the hill. There is a limit to what the temple authorities or the government can do, as the number of pilgrims are in excess of tens of millions."

Namboodiri feels the new initiative started by the Devaswom Board of giving Re 1 to anyone who gives them a plastic bottle, is admirable. "Even if the devotees throw away the bottles, there may be poor people there who will collect them for money. They can make Rs 100 a day if they collect 100 bottles," he said.

Namboodiri is of the opinion that the multinational companies, who market water in bottles, can also take an initiative and sell water in tetra-packs which will not pollute the soil.
His request to all the Ayyappa devotees who go to Sabarimala is, "Stop using plastic as much as you can. Bring back whatever plastic you carry with you. Don't carry any plastic in the irumudi kettu. Lord Ayyappa is described as Bhootha natha, that is, the king of pancha bhootha (jal, akasha, vayu, agni, prithvi). And if we go there contaminating the pancha bhootha, it will not be a good Ayyappa darshan! A bhakta is not supposed to destroy anything or cause harm to anyone. So, all Ayyappa devotees should go there without disturbing the river Pamba, the forest and its animals."