For kilometres, cars crawled through the Kumaon hills towards Kainchi Dham over the long weekend, bumper-to-bumper on the mountain road. Pilgrims got out and walked along the roadside and families waited for hours, while vehicles heading towards Mukteshwar were caught in the same gridlock as those arriving for darshan.Videos circulating online over the weekend showed long lines of cars, buses and two-wheelers around Bhimtal, Bhowali and Kainchi, with reports of journeys that ordinarily take a few hours stretching much longer.The congestion has prompted the Nainital administration to consider opening an alternative route to ease pressure on Kainchi Dham.Speaking to The Indian Express, Nainital District Magistrate Lalit Mohan said that the administration is considering a new standard operating procedure under which an existing bypass connecting the Kainchi area towards Almora and Ranikhet could be opened to divert traffic as a solution to the crowd.The district administration will meet temple authorities, police and other stakeholders on Tuesday to finalise crowd-control measures, he said.“We usually expect about 25,000 people visiting the shrine every day, but this weekend, since October 2, we have seen a crowd of more than 35,000 every day. Both the pilgrims and the locals use the same road to Kainchi, which also goes up to Mukteshwar, causing a traffic jam for hours,” Lalit Mohan said. Heavy traffic on the route leading to Nainital, Bhimtal and Kainchi Dham, during the long weekend due to October 2 , in Nainital on Saturday. (ANI photo)He said traffic had been cleared from the Mukteshwar side on Sunday.Story continues below this adWhat explains the surge?Mohan attributed the latest surge to two factors: the end of the monsoon, when travellers who had avoided the hills because of rain and landslides return, and the release of Hanuman Ansh, the film based on the life and teachings of Neem Karoli Baba.When The Indian Express reported on Kainchi Dham last month, Hanuman Ansh, made on a reported budget of Rs 2 crore, had grossed around Rs 300 crore worldwide. Its success has introduced Neem Karoli Baba, who died in 1973, to a younger audience far removed from the generation that knew him during his lifetime.Also Read | Looking for Neem Karoli Baba: How a 20th century guru found a new generationIt is learnt that 24.34 lakh people visited Kainchi Dham in the first six months of 2026, compared with around eight lakh visitors in the entire previous year.The surge has even prompted Hanuman Ansh director Vishal Chaturvedi to urge devotees to check the situation before travelling to Kainchi Dham. “There is a huge crowd at Kainchi Dham at the moment… we should all check the situation there before going,” he said, adding that visitors should avoid a situation where “children and women in your family are suffocating in the crowd or are stuck in a traffic jam.” He also suggested that devotees consider other sites associated with Neem Karoli Baba if Kainchi remains overcrowded.Story continues below this ad‘The hills are choked’The proposed diversion comes as Uttarakhand is already building an 18.15-km Kainchi Dham bypass from Sanatorium to Ranighat. Eight kilometres were completed and hot-mixed earlier this year, and hill-cutting on another 10.15 km is done too.A motor bridge is also being built to connect the bypass with the Bhowali-Almora highway. The state has separately built the Bhowali bypass and a 30-metre double-lane bridge over the Shipra River to ease congestion in the area.Also Read | Hanuman Ansh: Who was Neem Karoli Baba, the spiritual guru who inspired Steve Jobs, ZuckerbergThe state’s Public Works Department has also identified the Talla Ramgarh-Ratighat road as an alternative route connecting Kainchi with Ramgarh, Mukteshwar, Lohaghat and Champawat, saying its strengthening could significantly reduce traffic pressure.A state planning document notes that Uttarakhand receives tourists equivalent to roughly 300 per cent of its resident population, compared with 185 per cent in Himachal Pradesh, and warns that hill destinations once known for walking and trekking are increasingly being “choked by vehicles”.Story continues below this adThe National Green Tribunal has recently taken on record a scientific carrying-capacity study covering major pilgrimage sites including Kedarnath, Hemkund Sahib, Gangotri and Yamunotri, reflecting a wider debate over the limits of tourism and pilgrimage in the fragile Himalayas.Kainchi has already had its own carrying-capacity study. A Tourism Department study conducted in 2025 found that 64 per cent of devotees came only for darshan and returned the same day, while 82.4 per cent were from outside Uttarakhand.Nearly two-thirds were aged between 15 and 30. Parking was the biggest infrastructure complaint, with 74 per cent of respondents dissatisfied with parking facilities.At the temple, authorities said the situation remained manageable.Pradeep Bhatt, who works in Kainchi Dham’s accounts section, said authorities have deployed additional police personnel inside and outside the temple.Story continues below this ad“The crowd has swelled due to the long weekend. Police are taking extra precautions. The police force is now being placed inside and outside the temple too. So far it has been managed all right,” he said.By Monday, the immediate crisis had eased.Dheeraj Tiwari, 27, who runs his family’s business beside the temple entrance, said the worst congestion lasted a day or two.“The administration has now cleared everything out. Today everything looks normal. It was the long weekend that created a lot of flow of pilgrims,” he said.For residents, however, the problem is measured differently.Mani Bharadwaj, who formerly worked at Hotel Monal, about 500 metres from the shrine, and lives in Bhowali, said the disruption extended beyond tourists. “Today things seem to have gone back to normal, but over the weekend the locals faced a lot of problems. When thousands of vehicles are stuck on the same road, it affects everyone – people going to work, bringing supplies, travelling for medical needs or simply trying to get home. Locals have no separate road. The same infrastructure has to serve pilgrims and local residents. Every time there is a huge rush, locals bear the disruption. There needs to be a permanent solution rather than waiting for every long weekend and then putting more police on the roads,” he said.