The Kerala High Court on Wednesday criticised the state government and the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) for poor crowd management at the Sabarimala temple, warning that a disaster is inevitable if the situation is not brought under control.

This comes after nearly two lakh devotees reached the Sabarimala Ayyappa shrine within 48 hours of the temple opening on November 17, overwhelming the TDB and police as they struggled to manage the massive crowd, including many children on Tuesday.

A Bench of Justices observed that preparations for the pilgrimage season should have begun at least six months ago and questioned why the number of virtual queue slots had not been reduced despite evident congestion.

The court noted that the TDB itself had admitted that even after spot booking, more

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