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Puri/Bhubaneswar/Cuttack: The Fani fury seems not to have spared the State’s ancient places of worship. Post Fani, many of the tourist and pilgrimage places here stands quite defaced.
Massive devastation is seen on the premises of the Loknath Temple. Several religious significance trees like ‘Boula’ trees were uprooted in the cyclone. Though the rituals are being offered to the deities as usual, a very few devotees are seen in the temple. Odisha Fire Service personnel are working diligently to clear up the mess of uprooted trees heaped on by Fani winds. The temple will see thousands of footfalls tomorrow as it’s the last Monday of the Baishakh month.
“When we came here we found most of the trees were uprooted and the 'Dadhi Nauti' or the crown of the temple of goddess Parbati had broken,” said chief sevayat of Loknath Temple.
“Inititally we found it very difficult to enter into the temple complex as it was strewn with branches and twigs of uprooted trees. However, we cleared them gradually and now all our efforts are to clear the debris as early as possible,” said Dhananjay Mallick, fire official.
Apart from the Loknath Temple, the world famous Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar too was not spared. The underconstruction kitchen of the temple has caved in due to the cyclone. The trees across the temple campus were also uprooted. Daily rituals to deities are being offered with much difficulties. The temple structure has escaped the fury of the natural calamity, but the devotees visiting the temple are facing problem due to lack of water and electricity.
Rajkishore Mohapatra, supervisor of Lingaraj Temple, said “The new kitchen room was damaged completely, and the mango and coconut trees were uprooted by the cyclone.”
Similarly, though hundreds of trees were uprooted and roof of the temple prasad shop was blown away, the devastation seems to be colossal in last two decades in the history of Dhabaleswar Temple in Cuttack district.
On the other hand, the Dhauli Shanti Stupa looks to have lost the green lusture as it saw scores of trees falling like pack of cards to the might of the cyclone.
