SHIMLA - Fear of divine wrath is haunting those who have encroached on the land of the ancient Vashisht Temple near Manali and these people have now volunteered to pull down the structures constructed by them.

Several encroachments have come up on the temple land during the past few years. But now there is fear among the encroachers as the “deity” has through an "oracle” recently ordered that all these encroachments should be removed at once.

Fearing the curse of the gods, the encroachers are preparing to move out of the place. Many hotels, shops and residential houses have been constructed on the temple land.

A house has already been demolished in Manali village where the “deity” owned a piece of land.

There may be problems in demolishing concrete structures at Vashisht village. Residents have deep faith in Vashisht Muni and thousands of domestic and foreign tourists visit the temple which has sulphur springs which are believed to cure many skin diseases.

Earlier, a controversy had triggered off when the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation plugged the sulphur springs for its commercially-run hot baths below. These baths had to be closed as the residents protested against the commercialisation of the springs of the temple.

• Story originally published by:
The Tribune, Chandigarh / India I S.P. Sharma - Nov 06.01

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