The Kedarnath temple's earnings from offerings, donations and different services offered to devotees have more than doubled since March 2021, an RTI query has revealed.
From Rs 22.04 crore in 2020-21, it rose to Rs 52.9 crore in 2023-24, the Sri Badrinath-Kedarnath Mandir Samiti said in response to the query filed under the Right to Information Act by Noida-based RTI activist Amit Gupta.
Giving a yearly break-up, the committee said the income of the famous Himalayan temple in Uttarakhand was 22.04 crore in 2020-21, it dropped to Rs 16.52 crore in 2021-22 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic but rose again to Rs 29.67 crore in 2022-23 and to Rs 52.9 crore in 2023-24.
The rise in the temple's income during the period was 2.3 times.
A delayed opening of the temple for devotees in 2021, coupled with restrictions such as mandatory negative RT-PCR test reports, a daily cap on the number of devotees visiting the shrine, besides compliance with mask-wearing and social-distancing norms had severely affected the inflow of pilgrims during the pandemic.
However, as the number of Covid cases declined and the yatra norms were relaxed, the number of pilgrims surged the following year, increasing the temple's earnings once again.
The trend continued in 2023-24, the temple committee said.
The income of the temple comes from the offerings and donations made by devotees as well as the priority darshan facilities offered to those coming by helicopter services for which an additional fee is charged by the committee.
