Several devotees were injured, one of them seriously, due to overcrowding during the annual Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra in the coastal pilgrim town of Puri.
Hundreds of devotees were injured during the annual Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra in Odisha’s coastal pilgrim town of Puri on Sunday.
One person was seriously injured during a chariot pulling incident.
The incident took place at Pada Thanda, Grand Road in Puri, where a massive procession was taking place.
Eyewitnesses said one person was seriously injured when the chariot was pulled due to the crowd. The commotion took place when Balabhadra’s chariot was taken out in the traditional procession.
Emergency services at the spot rescued the injured and admitted them to nearby hospitals for treatment.
The Rath Yatra, Odisha’s main event, attracts thousands of devotees who come to watch the grand chariots and participate in pulling them.
Thousands of people were pulling the huge chariots from the 12th century Jagannath temple in Puri towards the Kundicha temple, about 2.5 km away.
Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nichnanath Saraswati along with his disciples had darshan of the chariots of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra and Puri’s Pathu Raja completed the ‘Sera Pahanra’ (chariot cleaning) ritual and the chariot pulling began at 5.20 pm.
Earlier in the day, President Draupadi Murmu performed ‘parikrama’ of the three chariots and paid obeisance to the deities.
To mark the beginning of the annual Rath Yatra, thousands of people gather to pull the wooden chariot of Balabhadra, which is around 45 feet high. This event is followed by the chariots of Goddess Subhadra and Jagannath. Excited devotees were eager to catch a glimpse of this holy event and slogans of ‘Jai Jagannath’ and ‘Haribol’ reverberated in the air.
It is estimated that around one million devotees visit the city for this important event.
Due to some divine arrangements, this year the Rath Yatra will be held for two days after 53 years.
