Uttarakhand has cancelled this year’s Kanwar Yatra due to the Covid pandemic, news agency ANI reported today. The decision by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s government came amid concerns raised over the risk posed by such events in triggering a possible third wave of the pandemic.
The Yatra had been cancelled last year, too, amid the first wave.
“Even the gods will not want people to die. The priority at the moment is saving lives,” Mr Dhami had told reporters in New Delhi on Sunday when asked whether or not the Yatra will be held.
Earlier today, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urged that only a minimum number of people should participate in the annual event, directing strict implementation of the COVID-19 protocol.
Every year, tens of thousands of ”Kanwariyas’‘ (devotees of Lord Shiva) from various northern states travel on foot or by other means to collect water from River Ganga at Haridwar to offer at Shiva temples in their areas.
The fortnight-long yatra, which begins with the onset of the month of Shravan, around July 25, and goes on till the first week of August, sees Kanwariyas from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh gathering in Haridwar.
The Indian Medical Association’s Uttarakhand chapter had yesterday written to Chief Minister Dhami requesting him to cancel the Yatra.
Reminding the Chief Minister how people went off guard after the first wave and paid a heavy price for it in the form of a stronger and more fatal second wave, the IMA asked him to take all things into consideration.
With inputs from NDTV
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