Pathanamthitta, Sunday, November 16, 2008: The holy hillock Sabarimala has begun to reverberate with devotional chants as pilgrims in thousands began converging on the banks of the river Pampa on the eve of the commencement of the two-month long pilgrimage of the Ayyappa temple.

One of the biggest religious events of the country, attracting about 30 million deovotees a year, various government departments and the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) which manages the temple, are busy with last-minute preparations for the pilgrimage,which is set to begin tomorrow
As devotees in thousands start arriving here from all over the country, security, crowd-management and pollution-control have emerged the biggest tasks of the authorities.

This year, security has been further strengthened by inducting additonal forces and commandos and installing surveillance devices around the shrine atop the hill, trekking route, base camp Pampa and other places where pilgrims converge.

A sprawling parking facility, where about 30,000 vehicles can be parked at a time, has been created at Nilackal camp, some 10 km from Pampa. The State Road Transport Corporation has launched round-the-clock chain services for carrying pilgrims from Nilackal to Pampa and back. A large number of doctors and paramedics have been roped in from various parts of the state for medicare services during the season.

The TDB has made foolproof arrangements for supply of prasadams like “aravana’ and ‘appam’ in view of flaws in management of prasadam supply last year.