Thousands perform Bali at Tirunelli
Devotees were given cloth, paper bags instead of plastic.
Kozhikode: Thousands paid tribute to departed souls by performing Bali rituals on the day of Karkkidakavavu at various sacred spots across the region on Sunday.
The primary destination of most of the devotees was the Mahavishnu Temple, the jungle shrine at Tirunelli, where rituals began at 3 am and were completed by 1.15 pm. Malabar Devaswam Board executive officer K.C. Sadanandan, temple trustee P.B. Kesavadasan, tahsildar N.I. Shaju and Mananthavadi circle inspector P.K. Mony among others supervised the facilities for the devotees. A majority of the devotees arrived at the temple premises on Saturday night.
Executive officer K.C. Sadanandan told reporters that this year there were 13 points where priests were ready to perform rituals for the devotees and that reduced the rush. “Water from the sacred river was diverted to provide more facilities for the devotees”, he added.
The chief attraction this year was the ‘no plastic’ campaign by the district administration headed by District Collector S Suhas. “Not only were devotees prevented from carrying plastic bags but the district administration also handed over bags made of paper and cloth to replace the plastic carry bags. Students of Mary Matha College, Mananthavadi distributed the bags.
The ban on private vehicles on the jungle road from the highway to Tirunelli from Saturday afternoon eased the movement of devotees through the narrow road as KSRTC and the Priyadarshini transport ensured chain services for devotees.
For the first time in its history, KSRTC operated a special service from Thiruvananthapuram to Tirunelli to allow devotees to perform the rituals.
The bus that started at 3 pm reached the temple premises in the early hours. The bus started its return journey at 3 pm on Sunday. At a rough estimate as many as 70,000 devotees performed the rituals by noon, according to the temple administration.