To reinforce these rules, the committee has also put up warning boards at various places on the temple premises.
Badrinath and Kedarnath, along with Yamunotri and Gangotri, collectively called Char Dham, attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year (File Photo)(HT_PRINT)
Amid the rising trend of clicking photos and filming videos inside Kedarnath temple, Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee on Monday announced a ban on photography and videography inside the holy shrine.
To reinforce these rules, the committee has also put up warning boards at various places on the temple premises which read, “Do not enter the temple premises with mobile phones; any kind of photography and videography is strictly prohibited inside the temple and you are under the surveillance of CCTV cameras”.
The boards, written in Hindi and English, also warned of the legal action against those not following the orders.
Following a video of a woman blogger proposing to her boyfriend in front of the temple went viral on the social media, the committee wrote to Kedarnath Dham Police seeking a ban on making videos around the temple area. In the letter, BKTC asked Kedarnath Dham Police to keep strictly monitor the area around the Temple and take action against those making YouTube shorts/videos/Instagram reels to ensure any such incident is not repeated.
In addition to the photography ban, the temple has also urged the devotees to wear “decent clothes” and desist from setting up tents or camps in the temple precincts.
“Pilgrims to Kedarnath have been urged to dress modestly. In the past, some pilgrims had been caught filming and taking photos indecently inside the temple,” President of Shri Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee Ajay Ajendra told ANI.
The committee president also said that making such videos or reels on the premises has a negative impact on the religious sanctity of the place. The temple committee imposed this ban after a wrong message was sent due to the purported indecent behaviour of certain pilgrims.
The ancient Kedarnath temple amid the Rudraprayag District mountains in Uttarakhand attracts millions of visitors annually. One of the 12 jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva and highest of all, this holy shrines is located at a height of 3584 meters above sea level.