Tirupati: The hill temple of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala is currently experiencing an unusual dip in the pilgrim turnout. In the last two days, the hill town, renowned for its bustling atmosphere and serpentine queues of devotees, has witnessed a significant decrease in the number of devotees thronging the temple.
On Tuesday of this week, the pilgrim turnout was so low that even pilgrims with free darshan slots were able to bypass the typically crowded waiting compartments at the Vaikuntam queue complexes and directly enter the queue lines leading to the sanctum sanctorum. The same situation persisted even on Wednesday.
According to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), only approximately 55,747 devotees sought blessings at the hill temple on Tuesday, a marked drop from the usual daily pilgrim count that often crosses 60,000. This decrease in pilgrim footfall has had a cascading effect on the waiting times for devotees.
Devotees with free darshan slots, accustomed to long waiting times, were surprised with a reduced waiting time of just four hours. Those with slotted Sarva darshan tokens also enjoyed a smoother experience, skipping the usual congestion in the queue. However, despite the unusual drop in pilgrim numbers, the Tirumala temple managed to collect a substantial hundi donation of Rs. 4.11 crore on Tuesday.
