Terrifying pictures showing a 60-feet temple car that overturned during the annual Mayana Kollai festival on the banks of the Palar river in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu have gone viral around midnight yesterday.
The incident left seven people seriously injured.
The accident took place when the chariot from Kazhinjur near Katpadi was being pulled out of the riverbed on the road after a ritual procession. The injured were subsequently admitted to the Government Medical College Hospital in Adukkamparai for treatment, reports ANI.
The car is believed to have lost its balance and tipped to one side, trapping nearly 10 people underneath. Police personnel and bystanders quickly intervened to rescue those trapped under it, while the seriously injured were taken to a government hospital for treatment.
District Collector Subbulakshmi, Superintendent of Police Sivaraman and Finance Division Officer Senthil Kumar visited the spot to take stock of the situation. The collector later met the injured at the hospital to check on their health. The authorities have ordered an investigation into the accident and ordered the festival organizers to take the necessary measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The Mayana Kollai festival is a major annual event in Vellore district. This was done on Sunday evening along the banks of the Palar River. During the celebrations, deities from 10 villages were decorated, mounted on temple chariots and taken in a procession to the riverbed where devotees performed traditional rituals and offerings.
After the accident, the people of Kazhinjur removed only the idol from the overturned car and took it back to their village.
According to government norms, temple chariots cannot exceed 12 feet in height. However, during the Mayana Kollai festival, the chariots from Virudhambattu, Kazhinjur and Mottur are said to rise to nearly 60 feet. A comparable incident was reported in 2023 when a car from Mottur village fell into the Palar river bed during the festivities.
BJP workers perform a ‘purification’ ritual at the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar temple in Maharashtra
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers performed what they described as a “purification” ritual by sprinkling cow urine at a temple in Sillod, located in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, after Abdul Sattar – a Muslim Shiv Sena MLA and former state minister – visited the shrine for darshan, PTI reported.
A video showing Sattara at a Shiva temple in Rahimabad, under his Sillod constituency, on the occasion of Mahashivratri on Sunday, has been widely circulated on social media, sparking protests from the BJP and other groups.
Subsequently, footage of BJP workers spraying ‘gomutra’ at the temple as part of a claimed purification ritual also went viral online.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, BJP’s Sillod unit chief Manoj Morello alleged that the visit to Sattar compromised the sanctity of the temple and said that was the reason for performing the ritual. He further accused Sattar of trying to appease the two communities, referring to his recent Haj pilgrimage and temple visit.