The hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala has been witnessing a steady drop in the devotee count after a total lockdown was imposed in Tirupati in the wake of a sharp rise in the coronavirus cases.
The Chittoor district administration declared the Tirupati city as a containment zone on July 20. Even as the Tirumala bypass road has been kept open for the pilgrim traffic, the ghat roads and the trekking routes continue to wear a deserted look.
Online darshan ticket
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) made available 9,000 drashan tickets online and 3,000 more at the counters in Tirupati. The selling of tickets at the counter was suspended in view of the lockdown, but the online tickets are available for booking.
According to TTD, the Tirumala temple registered a footfall of 7,926 on July 18 and 6,896 the next day. After the lockdown was imposed on July 20, the footfall has been on the decline. The numbers of devotees who visited the temple are: 5,768 (July 20), 5,767 (July 21), 5,360 (July 22) and 4,834 (July 23).
The steady dip in the footfall is hinting that those who had planned their darshan well in advance are not turning up.
Sources attribute it to the intensified dissemination of information in the mainstream and social media platforms on the rise in COVID-19 cases in Tirupati and many TTD staff testing positive for the virus.
