TIRUPATI
The total lockdown clamped on the temple city of Tirupati had a telling effect on the pilgrim footfall to the hill temple of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala. The inflow slowly, yet steadily, witnessed a fall over the last few days.
The numbers started dwindling after the district administration declared the entire city of Tirupati as a containment zone ahead of clamping total lockdown on July 20, though the Tirumala bypass road was allowed to be kept open to ensure unrestricted access to pilgrim traffic. In spite of this, the ghat roads as well as the trekking routes continue to wear a deserted look.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) made available 9000 tickets online and 3000 in the offline mode (over the counter purchase in Tirupati). The sale of 3000 tickets was withdrawn in view of the lockdown, but the 9000 online tickets were kept open. Of the total 12000 tickets, 7926 pilgrims visited Tirumala on July 18 and 6896 had darshan on July 19. After the lockdown was imposed, the footfall registered was 5768 (July 20), 5767 (July 21), 5360 (July 22) and 4834 (July 23). Though all the 9000 online tickets had been booked, the diminishing footfall clearly shows that even those who had planned their darshan well in advance preferred not to turn up for obvious reasons. Sources attribute it to the constant dissemination of information in the mainstream as well as social media on the rising Covid-19 cases in Tirupati, strict implementation of lockdown and the news on TTD staff testing positive to Covid-19.
