Traders removing encroachments voluntarily from Ellora Caves area

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

Following a meeting held at the tehsil office regarding the removal of encroachments around the world renowned Ellora Caves and the Grishneshwar Temple (12th Jyotirlinga), local shopkeepers began voluntarily dismantling their encroachments from Monday afternoon.

With the upcoming Kumbh Mela scheduled in Nashik, around 10 lakh devotees are expected to visit Grishneshwar Temple. In light of this, the district collector instructed concerned department heads to prepare a draft plan for clearing encroachments in the area. A meeting of officials was recently held at the tehsil office as part of this planning process. Acting even before any official eviction drive was launched, traders in the vicinity of the Ellora Caves began removing their encroachments voluntarily on Monday afternoon.

Two years ago, during the G-20 summit, the administration had cleared encroachments along both sides of the road from Ellora Caves to Ellora village. However, over time, encroachments gradually reappeared and returned to their earlier state. Now, with renewed administrative attention on clearing the area, shopkeepers have proactively started removing the structures themselves, anticipating another round of enforcement action.