After floods, lean Sabarimala season hits business in Kerala
REPORTS FROM ACROSS STATE POINT TO A SETBACK FOR ALMOST ALL KINDS OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY
Ahundred days after floods devastated life and business in Kerala in August, a different calamity appears to be striking the state’s business community this month: The normal flood of pilgrims to the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple has reduced considerably, hitting the business sector all over again.
Reports from across the state point to a setback for almost all kinds of business activity nearly a fortnight since the Sabarimala temple opened for its peak pilgrimage season.
From flower sellers and tourist buses, and small and big hotels to wayside eateries, the dwindling numbers of pilgrims owing to the stand-off at the temple appears to have spared no business this season.
Following India’s Supreme Court verdict in late September that there should be no gender discrimination in the pilgrimage to Sabarimala, Ayyappa devotees have been putting up protests that have managed to keep away every young girl or woman of menstruating age from going to the temple. This in turn appears to have prompted many to skip the pilgrimage this year.
The district administration in Pathanamthitta where the temple is located has imposed prohibitory orders around the temple, virtually turning the temple into a fortress of police personnel. Local reports say about 5,000 police officials are on duty at the temple this pilgrimage season.
A quick pointer to the fall in revenue is the income from the parking lots managed by the Travancore Devaswom Board which manages the temple.
Reports say that the average daily revenue from each of the parking lots has fallen to about Rs18,000 (Dh934) a day, which is only about a quarter of the Rs70,000 daily average earnings in a normal pilgrimage season.
Pilgrim footfall this season has fallen, and local tea shops, restaurants, lodges and taxis are all feeling the pinch of lower business volumes.
Some of those who have taken shops on lease from the TDB may even end up losing money at the end of the season if the pilgrim numbers do not pick up quickly.
C Chandrasekharan, a TBD official said on record it was too early to comment on the situation and that pilgrim numbers may pick up in the coming days. But considering that the main pilgrim season is only from midNovember to mid-January and two weeks of that has passed, traders and businessmen are worried about their prospects this year.
One of the losers has been the state-owned Kerala State Road Transport Corporation. As against the Rs350,000 that its Kottayam depot averaged daily during the last pilgrimage season, its daily collections have fallen to about Rs200,000 per day this year.