The Uttarakhand government has banned the use of mobile phones within 200-meter radius of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri temples in the state due to rising tourist footfalls at these revered sites.

The decision was taken in a special Chardham pilgrimage meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

As the state administration’s crowd management efforts proved insufficient within six days of the start of chardham pilgrimage 2024, the government has now decided to ban photography and video shoots within 200 meters of the temples. Government has also decided to not permit vehicles unregistered for pilgrimage on Chardham routes.

“This season, pilgrim footfall is twice that of 2023. Crowd management has become too difficult due to unprecedented inflow of the pilgrims. Use of mobile phones near temples has added to the difficulties and caused hindrance in the pilgrimage. It has been decided to prohibit mobile use within 200 meters distance of the Chardham temples. All police officials concerned and district magistrates have been instructed for strict adherence to the decision at the temples” said the state chief secretary Radha Raturi.

“No devotee should come to Uttarakhand without registration for the chardham pilgrimage. The devotees should first register on the Uttarakhand tourism website. This will be good to them as well as help the administration manage yatra better. We are also writing to other state governments to make people aware in their areas not to travel to Uttarakhand unregistered” said Raturi. She added “There will be strict checkings in all checkposts and no unregistered devotees will be permitted to go ahead as we want to stop mismanagement and continue with unhindered and smooth pilgrimage”.

Chief secretary further stressed that the state government wants pilgrims to return to their homes safely. She denied any stampede like situation anywhere on the chardham route and those reporting auch incidents are doing crime. “There has been no stampede till now. It is a crime to spread fake news. We will take stringent actions against this fake news” said the chief secretary.

It is significant that the ongoing Chardham pilgrimage season is witnessing massive inflow of the devotees as compared to the past years. Around 28,00,000 devotees have registered themselves for their visits to the four shrines in the last nearly month.

It’s notable that a sudden surge in the pilgrims to Chardham shrines within six of the beginning of the pilgrimage season crippled the state machinery in its crowd management endeavours. Premises of all four shrines witnessed devotees flow much beyond their carrying capacity leading to the fears of untoward incidents.

Several videos claiming poor management of the chardham pilgrimage by the state machinery were doing rounds on several social media platforms.