After Uttarakhand’s no to Kanwar Yatra, providing Ganga water poses major challenge for U.P.

The Uttar Pradesh government has said detailed guidelines regarding the Kanwar Yatra will be issued soon.

Enforcing Covid guidelines and making arrangements to fetch Ganga Jal (water from the Ganga) after the Uttarakhand government’s ban on the annual Kanwar Yatra starting on July 25 will be a major challenge for the Uttar Pradesh authorities as the Yogi Adityanath government has decided to allow the annual pilgrimage in the state this year, said senior UP government officials here on Wednesday. Usually, a large number of devotees from Uttar Pradesh prefer to go to Haridwar in Uttarakhand to collect Ganga Jal.

A large number of devotees from Uttar Pradesh prefer to go to Haridwar in Uttarakhand to collect Ganga Jal. (SOURCED)

Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary Navneet Sehgal said detailed guidelines regarding the yatra will be issued soon.

“Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has asked to coordinate with the neighbouring Bihar and Uttarakhand and ensure Covid guidelines during the yatra,” he stated.

Another senior government official said the state top officials were mulling over to coordinate with the Uttarakhand state authorities after the government there cancelled the Kanwar Yatra again this year, citing the pandemic and asked devotees not to come to Haridwar to collect water from the Ganga.

“We are thinking of different options if devotees are not allowed to visit Haridwar to collect Ganga Jal. The options could be of providing tankers to fetch Ganga water from Haridwar and provide it to devotees within the state border as well as persuade devotees to collect water from Ganga passing through within the state territory,” a senior state government official said.

The Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage carried out by the devotees of Lord Shiva who collect water from Ganga (usually at Haridwar in Uttarakhand) and offer it at Shiva temples in their respective states. The kanwariyas visit many places along the course of the Ganga to take the “holy water” to the temples.

Apart from Haridwar, the kanwariyas visit Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar to fetch water from the river.

These kanwariyas come from far-off places, covering hundreds of kilometres on foot.

Last year, the pilgrimage was not held in Uttar Pradesh due to Covid-19 restrictions. Nearly 50 lakh devotees participated in this annual pilgrimage in the past, including around 10 lakh people only from the districts of west UP which are closer to Haridwar.

In the past, communal violence after accidents involving kanwariyas, as well as clashes between kanwariya groups and people from other community, was witnessed in the state.

UP additional director general (ADG) of police (law and order Prashant Kumar said the state police was chalking out a plan to ensure no law-and-order problem was created in case of restrictions imposed during Kanwar Yatra by the adjoining state.

“We are in touch with Uttarakhand state authorities and trying to sort out the issue,” he said and added, “We are also trying to coordinate with the Bihar authorities.”

The ADG further stated the state police were asked to make necessary arrangements like chalking out route charts for devotees, avert road accidents on these routes, intensify patrolling, keep aerial vigil through drones on kanwar yatra routes and make necessary traffic diversions.

He said the directions had been issued to ensure that no meat shop was operational on the Kanwar Yatra routes to avert any type of communal flare-up and curb rumour mongering. He also said the district police chiefs had been asked to provide behavioural training to the police personnel on duty to deal with the devotees.

In Varanasi, which is another preferred spot to offer Ganga Jal to Lord Shiva at Kashi Vishwanath temple, preparations have already been done following which Varanasi commissioner of police (CP) A Satish Ganesh held a meeting with senior police officials.

In Varanasi, over 30 lakh (three million) kanwariyas from different parts of the region, including large number from Prayagraj and its adjoining districts, visit Kashi Vishwanath temple, to offer Ganga Jal and Sangam Jal (water from the confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati in Prayagraj).

The Varanasi police commissioner said any decision regarding kanwar yatra taken by the government will be implemented. He said police personnel who were deployed in the security of Kashi Vishwanath temple and Gyanvapi mosque would be imparted behavioural training in order to manage devotees. He said that they had also been instructed to behave well with the devotees, including women, elderly people and children.

Over 50, 000 devotees visit Kashi Vishwanth temple daily on other days in the Hindu month of Shravan on an average and the number goes up to 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh during Mondays of the month.

Usually, kanwariyas from Prayagraj, Jaunpur, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Ghazipur and various other districts and devotees from different parts of the country visit Varanasi in Shravan to take a holy dip in the Ganga and offer prayers to Kashi Vishwanath.

In 2020, due to the Covid-19 outbreak, only around 30,000 devotees offered prayers at Kashi Vishwanath temple on the Mondays of Shravan. The figure was about 10,000 daily for the other days of the month.