Thousands of devotees offer prayers to Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala temple

Sabarimala (Kerala) [India], December 21 : Thousands of devotees thronged the Sabarimala temple in Pathanamthitta district on Saturday to offer prayers to Lord Ayyappa, according to temple officials.
The temple opened its doors on November 15 to mark the start of the annual Mandala-Makaravilakku festival, which signals the beginning of the pilgrimage season.
According to the police, the bus, which was carrying 45 people, including two children, was on its way back to Hunsur in Mysore after visiting the Sabarimala temple when the accident occurred around 6 am. The injured passengers were immediately admitted to Mananthavady Medical College in Wayanad. Authorities later confirmed that their condition was not serious.
On November 16, devotees had gathered at the temple to offer their prayers.
A devotee, Anand spoke to ANI and said, "I have come from Mumbai. I have been coming to Sabarimala for the last 26 years continuously. The development that has been done at Sabarimala is good. Transportation, as well as cleanliness, surroundings, infrastructure and buildings, have come up."
Another devotee also spoke about the festival and said, "We have come from Tamil Nadu, especially from Tiruvannamalai district. We all reached Sabarimala safely. Transport facilities were good this year. Online registration is a good option introduced by Sabarimala recently...We had a good darshan."
Kaushik, another devotee said, "We have all come from Bengaluru. We have been coming here for the past 7-8 years. We all reached Pampa at 4 am. All the facilities are very nice here and it is managed well. There is not much crowd, the crowd is being well managed...It is very good to be in Sabarimala."