Sabarimala prepares for Mandala-Makaravilakku season with enhanced security measures
Kerala Police have announced extensive security and crowd-management arrangements ahead of the Sabarimala pilgrimage season. Measures include AI-based cameras, experienced officers, an additional FASTag lane at Pamba, advance crowd advisories and shelters accommodating around 6,000 devotees
Thiruvananthapuram: A day before the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala opens for the Mandala-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season, the police on Sunday said extensive arrangements had been made to ensure the safety of devotees and facilitate smooth darshan.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) P Vijayan, who is overseeing police arrangements at Sabarimala, briefed the media on the measures being put in place.
“This year, very strong arrangements have been made. We have given priority to four points — firstly, ensuring the security of devotees, the shrine and those working at the temple; secondly, ensuring a comfortable pilgrimage; thirdly, traffic management; and lastly, crowd management to prevent any stampede-like incident,” the ADGP said.
“For crowd control, we have deployed Superintendents of Police (SPs) with proven experience and a good track record,” Vijayan added.
He said that if police personnel deployed at the 18 steps — which devotees ascend before reaching the shrine — hurried the devotees, it could create a situation in which some might fall and sustain injuries.
The official advised devotees to strictly adhere to the queue system put in place to ensure that they could move forward one after another in an orderly manner.
“Instead of doing that, if they try to find some loophole to circumvent it and get in front, they are being unfair to the other devotees,” he said.
The officer also said the police were installing artificial intelligence-based cameras at the temple to assist with crowd management.
Besides this, the police were analysing devotee footfall data from the previous five pilgrimage seasons to identify peak arrival times. Another FASTag lane at Pamba for vehicles is also planned. The police will issue advance bulletins informing pilgrims about days when higher or lower crowds are expected so that they can plan their travel accordingly, he said.
Additionally, two large sheds with a combined capacity to accommodate around 6,000 pilgrims have been set up to regulate the movement of devotees, the officer added.
The temple will open at 5 pm on Monday, with regular rituals beginning the following day.
The shrine will close temporarily on the night of December 27 after the Mandala Pooja and reopen on December 30 for the Makaravilakku phase of the pilgrimage season.
The Makarajyothi will be lit on January 14, 2027, and the temple will close on January 20, marking the end of the two-month festival season.
