Oxygen plant proposed for ‘Patal Bhubaneswar’ cave temple
Oxygen plant proposed for ‘Patal Bhubaneswar’ cave temple
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, Aug 10
To meet the oxygen requirements of cave temple of ‘Patal Bhubaneswar’, in Pithoragarh district, the temple committee will purchase small oxyigen cylinders for pilgrims as a short term requirement while an oxygen plant will be installed at the cave temple by Public Works Department (PWD). This was announced by Reena Joshi, District Magistrate, Pithoragarh after presiding over a meeting of temple committee here today.
Pithoragarh District Magistrate also instructed the temple committee to allow only small groups of pilgrims inside the temple cave as high number of tourists could create problems of suffocation as the oxygen level inside caves remains less than normal.
“The 7th century cave temple is described in ‘Manas Khand’ of ‘Skand Puran’, is one of the two temples of the district which have been included in ‘Manas Khand Mandir Yatra’ tours organised by tourists department of state in May this year,” said the DM.
According to Neelam Singh Bhandari, chief priest of the cave temple, due to oxygen related problems inside the 50 feet deep cave, the tourists were facing problems of breathing inside from some time. “The cave temple has been closed for pilgrims from July 15 to September 30.this year,” said the temple committee chairman.
According to Bhandari, over one lakh pilgrims visited the temple till June this year.”The months of May – June remain as highest visited by pilgrims, “said Bhandari
According to Kriti Chandra Arya, District Tourist Officer of Pithoragarh, out of a total 12 ‘Puranik’ temples of Kumaon, included in first phase of ‘Manaskhand Mandir Mala’, two temples of Pithoragarh, Patal Bhuvneswar and Hat Kalika temples of Gangolihat have been included in the list.
Temple committee chief Neelam Singh Bhandari, has said that he needs some other facilities of health, first Aid, security and more CCTV cameras inside the cave to get exact information of situation of tourists gone inside the temple.”Our all 18 guides should be trained in first aid courses and more cameras be installed inside the cave, to ensure security of tourists going inside the cave as the number of tourists in increasing year by year to the cave temple,” said Bhandari.
