Our religious sites, some of them highly revered by the faithful have fallen victim of the vagaries of such a spiteful month-long COVID-19-driven lockdown, which has prevented devotees and tourists visiting popular religious places which used to attract thousands of devotees during normal times. With the dearth of devotees, the income of these temples and religious has gone almost down to zero. According to a latest report, the income of the highly revered Pashupatinath Temple has too received a blow as the lockdown has curbed the movement of devotees. It is the first time in its history that the Pashupatinath Temple has remained closed for so long, stopping devotees from making offerings, that would run in tens of thousands rupees, to the temple. During normal periods, the temple would attract thousands of devotees from all parts of the country everyday. Devotees from India and several other nations would also flock the temple in hordes thus helping swell the temple’s income considerably.
It has been reported that the temple authority has been suffering a minimum of about one million rupees loss a day after the temple was shut down to devotees due to the fear of COVID-19. The Pashupatinath Area Development Trust (PADT), the body that looks after the well-being of the temple and its surrounding areas, used to collect Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 250,000 from the offerings made by devotees every day. Sometimes the collection would reach as high as Rs. 500,000 to Rs.700, 000. The temple used to rake up about Rs. 4.5 million in the offerings in a month’s period. Likewise, the temple authority would collect Rs. 10 million in entrance fees from the hordes of tourists that visit the temple areas in a month. The collection from the tourist entrance fees would be around Rs. 300,000 to Rs. 400,000. Similarly, the monthly collection from the special worship (puja) would was around Rs. 7 million and it would go further up in special months. The collection from the services provided at Aryaghat, electric crematorium and mourning house was around Rs 2 to Rs. 2.5 million. The temple closure has also hit hard the incomes of hundreds of small-time vendors who would sell flowers, religious items and souvenirs to the visiting devotees and tourists.
This is really a very sad situation for the nation’s most revered religious site. Ever since the government introduced the transparency provision regarding the offerings made in the temples and religious sites of the country, the Pashupatinath Temple has seen its income swelling by tens of thousands rupees. These incomes, according to the PADT, would go in the maintenance and promotion of the temple areas and would help the PADT in holding special festivals and fairs for which this temple of Lord Shiva is known for. The draining of incomes would certainly incapacitate the PADT to carry out all such activities for a considerable time. The cash-strapped PADT would therefore certainly look to the government for assistance after its incomes were hit due to no fault of its own. The government will have to provide assistance in whatever level to the most revered and the most popular temple. The temple is likely to face hard times for sometimes even after the lockdown is lifted, and it will need the government’s rescue act.