UP, Haryana, Uttarakhand chief ministers decide to suspend Kawariya Yatra amid coronavirus crisis

Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, June 21

Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand have decided to suspend Kawariya Yatra this year in the light if the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis.

The month long-yatra that Hindu God Shiva’s devotees follow usually begins when Shravan begins, which is on July 23 this year.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath held a virtual meeting with his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar and Uttarakhand counterpart Trivendra Singh Rawat to call off this year’s yatra as the public health crisis continues to mount alarmingly across the country.

The three chief ministers agreed to establish dialogue with the ‘dharma gurus’ (religious leaders) of their respective states to inform the people of the decision to suspend the Kawariya Yatra this year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the agreement with the heads of Uttarakhand and Haryana, Adityanath had a virtual meeting with all police heads across Uttar Pradesh in which he asked them to meet the religious leaders, Kanwar Sanghs and Peace Committees in their respective areas.

It is expected that these opinion leaders would take the initiative to widely propagate among the masses the reason for the Kawariya Yatra being suspended this year due to it violating the strict COVID-19 rules of social distancing, sanitization, facemasks etc.

The Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage of Shiv’s devotees known as Kanwarias or ‘Bhole’ to Hindu pilgrimage places like Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttrakhand and Sultanpur in Bihar to fetch holy waters of river Ganga.

Millions travel by foot in groups for hundreds of kilometres chanting ‘bol bom, singing bhajans and dancing to bring back holy water from Ganga for Lord Shiva established in their respective Shiva shrines.

Until the late 1980s the yatra used to be a small affair undertaken by only by a few saints and older devotees. However, the yatra also gained popularity among the young in a development that coincided with the mandir movement in the early 90s.

In recent years, its popularity has seen a dramatic increase clearly supported by Adityanath’s government. It makes special arrangements by restricting traffic for the Kanwariyas, providing them free food and other facilities on the way, allowing DJs, preventing the sale of non vegetarian food on the route and even making an ADG level police officer shower them with rose petals from a helicopter.

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