Ooty: Five-day festival at jungle temple in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve ends

Ooty: The five-day long annual car festival at the Mariamman temple in the Bokkapuram area in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve(MTR) buffer zone limits, an ancient and famed jungle temple in the Nilgiris, that concluded on Tuesday, proved to be a crowd puller with village mela type fervor inside the woods and foresters on their toes to discipline the crowd. Devotees in hundreds and thousands thronged for the festival and 'darshan', especially on Monday night when the temple car was hauled.

Round-the-clock special bus services to the temple, relaxation of traffic norms on the jungle roads, and local VIPs taking part in the car festival indicated the popularity of this festival in the jungle temple. Shops, eateries, giant wheels and other entertainment for children, devotees carrying kumbam, and some piercing their cheeks with metal skewers as part of the festival related devotional acts, enacted a perfect village festival atmosphere inside the woods.

Ramesh Belli from Sholur village said that there is a strong belief among devotees that Mariamman, the deity in the Bokkapuram temple, will always fulfill the prayers of devotees who visit this temple and worship. This is why it is one of the popular temple festivals in the hills, he said.