Nashik dist shrines reopen, most visitors at Saptashrungi

Nashik: The Saptashrungi temple on Thursday registered the highest footfall of devotees among all prominent temples in Nashik on Day-1 of temples reopening that coincided with the ghata sthapana marking the first day of the Navaratra festival.

District guardian minister Chhagan Bhujbal visited the Saptashrungi Devi Mandir in Vani, a gurdwara in Shingada Talao, and the Badi Dargah at Kazipura in Nashik city as these religious places had also reopened on Thursday.

Though the yatra — the annual fair — has been canceled this year due to the Covid-related restrictions on gathering of crowds, the number of devotees registering themselves online and visiting the temples stood at about 6,500 till Thursday evening.

The district administration and the Shree Saptashrung Niwasini Devi Trust at the Saptashrung Hills, which has the shrine of the Sapatshrungi Devi, had made elaborate arrangements for the pilgrims visiting the temple on the first day since the reopening.

“Early in the morning, rituals were performed in the temple by Vardhan Desai — the president of the trust who is also the district judge and the additional sessions judge — and his wife. This marked the ghata sthapana of the Navaratra festival. People from across the state and country visit the shrine during this period,” said Sudarshan Dahatonde, the manager of the trust.

Bhujbal and MLA Kalwan Nitin Pawar also visited the temple in the morning.

The administration has made arrangements to allow 1,200 visitors per hour by issuing online passes. The pass-holders should carry fully vaccinated certificate or the negative report of an RT-PCR test done within the past 72 hours. If they do not have either of these documents, they will have to undergo rapid-antigen testing (RAT) for Covid.

“We conducted more than 400 RATs on Thursday. Two people were found to be positive and they were sent to the Covid care centre,” said Kapse, the tehsildar of Kalwan.

The flow of the pilgrims to other temples — like Trimbakeshwar and Kalaram temples — was relatively on the lower side.

The Shri Trimbakeshwar Devasthan Trust had made arrangements for 500 pilgrims per hour, but there were very few devotees visiting the temple on Thursday.

“We saw very low footfall on Thursday. Perhaps people are also cautious considering the spread of the infection. Throughout the day, about 500 people visited the temple,” Santosh Kadam, one of the trustees, said.

The number of pilgrims visiting the Renuka Mata mandir at Chandwad and at Bhagur, the Kalika Mata mandir in Nashik city was considerably on the higher side. All these shrines had made arrangements as per the government guidelines.