Chardham yatra suffers a setback again

A warning issued by the Met department regarding heavy rains in Garhwal would deal a serious jolt to religious tourism in the hilly state. Chardham yatra, considered to be the backbone of Garhwal region's economy, has failed to pick up this season owing to the fear psychosis generated by the last year's devastating floods.

V D Singh, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Badrinath-Kedarnath temple committee said "the strength of pilgrims visiting Badrinath and Kedarnath shrines has reduced by one-tenth this season." Around 28,000 pilgrims have visited the Kedarnath shrine compared to 400,000 pilgrims who visited the shrine in the previous year. "The Badrinath shrine, saw 1.39 lakh visitors till July 13 this year. Approximately 600,000 pilgrims visited the Badrinath shrine during the same period last year. The poor response to the Chardham yatra has affected nearly 8,800 dhaba owners, priests, hoteliers and others, who used to earn money through various vocations in the Garhwal region", Singh said. Significantly, the temple committee's annual turnover is all set to decline sharply this year to Rs 3-4 crore from the annual turnover of Rs 10 crore in the previous few years. Besides, the committee had also suffered a loss of Rs 200 crore in the last year's devastation caused to its various hotels, inns and other businesses. "The situation in Garhwal region is very precarious due to a sharp decline in the pilgrims visiting the Chardham area," agrees a top government official.

However, the government is hoping that the rains this season may not damage the roads and other infrastructure facilities which were reconstructed recently in the Chardham area.