Pilgrims trickle back to Ganges as lockdown eases
Life is slowly returning to normal among the hallowed temples of Haridwar, one of Hinduism’s holiest places, but the Indian pilgrimage town still has a forlorn air as the country emerges from its coronavirus lockdown.
The town usually teems with tens of thousands of visitors who flock from far and wide for a dip in the holy waters of the Ganges.
But India remains in the grip of a raging Covid-19 outbreak that has claimed more than 15,000 lives and infected over half a million people.
For the first time in as long as any local can remember, pilgrims stopped coming in late March after India imposed the world’s biggest coronavirus shutdown.
M.K. Vashistha, a wizened priest, said that his elders would recount how even in the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago – which hit India hard – cremations on the banks of the holy river still took place constantly.
“Things still didn’t stop here at that time, like they have now,” he said.
In the past few weeks as India has eased restrictions – even as case numbers have surged – a few pilgrims have begun to return.
Now though, instead of broadcasting hymns and chants, Haridwar’s loudspeakers blare announcements telling people to wear masks and use sanitiser.
“Look around,” Tanmany Vashishta from the Shri Ganga Sabha, one of Haridwar’s most influential religious groups, said, pointing to a few hundred pilgrims on the streets, most in masks and keeping their distance.
“This isn’t even one or two percent of the normal times.”