Neem Karoli Baba Ashrams in India: Kainchi, Vrindavan, Lucknow and More

Neem Karoli Baba ashrams in India: the best-known is Kainchi Dham near Nainital in Uttarakhand. Its official trust also runs two smaller temples nearby, Shree Kakrighat Dham and Shree Hanuman Mandir, Bhumiyadhar. Other places linked to the saint have their own management: the Samadhi ashram in Vrindavan, Neeb Karori Dham in Farrukhabad, Hanuman Setu Mandir in Lucknow, Hanuman Garhi in Nainital, Sankat Mochan in Shimla and an ashram on the Haridwar–Rishikesh road. The Kainchi trust says it does not serve the other temples, and nobody keeps an exact count.

Last checked: 22 October 2026, on the Kainchi trust’s website (shreekainchimandirtrust.org), the Nainital and Farrukhabad district websites, the Ministry of Tourism’s Incredible India site and UP Tourism (UPSTDC). We have not visited these places. We give visiting hours only where an official page publishes them. Where a detail comes from a devotee website or a newspaper, we say so.

Neem Karoli Baba ashrams at a glance

Uttarakhand: Kainchi Dham and the trust’s two other temples

1. Kainchi Dham, Nainital district

Kainchi Dham is the ashram most people mean when they search for Neem Karoli Baba. The Nainital district website says it lies on the Nainital–Almora road and that the name comes from two sharp hairpin bends (“kainchi” in the local dialect), not from scissors. According to the trust, Neem Karoli Baba stopped at Kainchi village on 25 May 1962. Temples were later built beside the Kshipra river, and 15 June is kept every year as the temples’ consecration day, with a large bhandara.

The temple is run by Shri Kainchi Hanuman Mandir and Ashram Trust. The trust says it is the only body the government has notified to manage the temple, and that no agent or other person can issue permits, room bookings, darshan passes or donation requests for it. Its FAQ says the temple is open for darshan all year, and that the ashram has very few rooms, kept for priests and staff. It also says the trust has no online donation link.

We don’t repeat routes, distances or visiting rules here. For those, see our guides: Nainital to Neem Karoli Baba ashram (Kainchi Dham), Haridwar to Kainchi Dham, Jim Corbett to Kainchi Dham and places to visit near Kainchi Dham.

2. Shree Kakrighat Dham

The Kainchi trust lists Kakrighat as one of the temples it maintains. In the trust’s description, it is north of Khairna on the Almora road, a little beyond Khairna bridge, with a river on its eastern side. The trust says Neem Karoli Baba chose the spot for a Hanuman temple because the saint Somvari Maharaj had worshipped there. Siddhi Maa later restored the Shiva temple and Somvari Maharaj’s place of worship. The trust publishes no separate timings for Kakrighat.

3. Shree Hanuman Mandir, Bhumiyadhar

Bhumiyadhar is the third temple on the Kainchi trust’s list. The trust places it about 4 km from Bhowali on the Gethia–Bhowali road. According to the trust, a local resident, Puran Singh, gave his house and land to Neem Karoli Baba on 11 December 1961, a small ashram began there, and a Hanuman idol brought from Jaipur was installed in 1965. No separate timings are published.

4. Hanuman Garhi, Nainital

Hanuman Garhi is not run by the Kainchi trust, but the Nainital district website links it to the saint: the temple complex was built “at the instance of Neem Karoli Baba around 1950”. The main deity is Hanuman, with Ram and Shiva shrines. It stands at 1,951 m and is known for sunset views. The same page gives two distances, about 3.5 km from the bus stop in its description and 2 km from Nainital bus station under “How to reach”. No timings are published.

Uttar Pradesh: Vrindavan, Neeb Karori and Lucknow

5. Neem Karoli Baba Samadhi ashram, Vrindavan

Neem Karoli Baba died in Vrindavan. The Kainchi trust says this happened at the Ramakrishna Mission hospital at about 1:15 a.m. on 11 September 1973, the day of Anant Chaturdashi. His samadhi (memorial) temple is in his Vrindavan ashram on Parikrama Marg. UP Tourism’s official Baba Neeb Karori package includes a visit to the “Neeb Karori Baba Samadhi Sthal” in Vrindavan.

The ashram’s own visiting hours and stay rules are not on any official page we could find. The Taos ashram’s devotee website (nkbashram.org) says the first temple here opened in 1967. It adds that the complex has Hanuman, Durga Devi and Sita Ram temples along with the samadhi temple, and that a few Western visitors may stay only with a letter of introduction and prior arrangement. Treat these as devotee-site details, not official rules.

6. Neeb Karori Dham, Farrukhabad

The village of Neeb Karori gave the saint his best-known name. The Farrukhabad district website calls the site Neeb Karori Dham: Baba Lakshman Das’s penance site near Sankisa, with an old Hanuman temple and a sacred cave. It says devotees offer a bell when a wish comes true, and it calls this the “principal” Neeb Karori Dham. Darshan is open all day except 12:00 to 2:00 p.m., with aarti every morning and evening.

Accounts of how long he lived here differ. The Kainchi trust says he left the village in 1934–35. The Indian Express reported that, by tradition, he meditated in an underground cave here for about 12 years. The devotee site nkbashram.org says the cave is less than half a kilometre from Lakshmandas Puri railway station (not confirmed on an official page).

7. Hanuman Setu Mandir, Lucknow

Hanuman Setu Mandir stands beside the Hanuman Setu bridge over the Gomti, near Lucknow University. The Uttar Pradesh government named it in its new Neeb Karori Baba spiritual circuit in October 2026 (The Indian Express, 2 October 2026). The Lucknow district tourism page does not list it, and we found no official timings. According to nkbashram.org, the temple was inaugurated on 26 January 1967 and has two murtis each of Neem Karoli Baba and Hanuman (devotee site, not official).

Birthplace: Akbarpur, Firozabad (not an ashram)

The Kainchi trust says Neem Karoli Baba was born in Akbarpur, a village then in Agra district and now in Firozabad, and was named Lakshminarayan. The village is a stop on UP Tourism’s Neeb Karori Baba package. We found no official visitor information for it.

Himachal Pradesh: Sankat Mochan, Shimla

Sankat Mochan is a Hanuman temple on the Kalka–Shimla highway near Tara Devi. The Ministry of Tourism’s Incredible India page links it to Neem Karoli Baba. It says he set up a simple hut here in the late 1950s and wanted a Hanuman temple, that the foundation stone was laid in 1962 and that the temple was consecrated in 1966. The Shimla district website gives a different date: it says the temple was “established in 1950” and does not mention the saint. We show both because the two official pages disagree.

Timings (Incredible India): 7:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in winter and 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in summer. The same page says a langar (free community meal) is served every Sunday. For the rest of the city, see our guide to places to visit in Shimla.

Rishikesh: the ashram on the Haridwar road

Devotee websites describe a Neem Karoli Baba ashram about 7 km south of Rishikesh, on the west side of the road from Haridwar, with a Hanuman statue about 40 feet tall that can be seen from the highway. According to nkbashram.org, it holds morning and evening aarti and does not let Western visitors stay. We found no official page (district, state tourism or trust) for this ashram, so we give no timings. If you are travelling between the two towns, see our Haridwar to Rishikesh distance guide.

Outside India

The best-known ashram outside India is the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram and Hanuman Temple in Taos, New Mexico, USA. Its website says it cannot help with visits to Kainchi Dham or other ashrams in India and sends visitors to the Kainchi trust’s website instead.

Latest news (last 12 months)

• Kainchi registration is proposed, not yet in force: the Nainital administration has proposed online registration, like the Char Dham yatra, with a cap of 20,000–25,000 visitors a day. It still needed government approval as of 16 October 2026 (Uttarakhand News Network; The Indian Express, 8 and 13 October 2026), and a 20 October report still called it a proposal. Reports of the 2–4 October long-weekend crowd differ: more than 45,000 in a single day (PTI, 9 October 2026) and more than 35,000 a day (The Indian Express, 13 October 2026). The Indian Express also reported 24.34 lakh visitors in the first six months of 2026, against about 8 lakh in all of the previous year.
• Weekend shuttles to Kainchi: on 9 October 2026 the district magistrate announced shuttles for weekends and festival days, from parking at Bhimtal, Bhowali and Vikas Bhawan (PTI via ET Infra). During the 17–20 October weekend and Dussehra holidays, private vehicles were not allowed up to the temple area. Cars parked at Vikas Bhawan in Bhimtal or at Bhowali Sanatorium, and visitors took a shuttle from there (Dainik Jagran, 16 October 2026; Dynamite News, 18 October 2026). Police announce these plans weekend by weekend, so check before you go.
• Opening time: on 11 October 2026 Union Minister Ajay Tamta told officials to open the temple at 4 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. and to plan separate entry and exit routes (India Today). This differs from the trust’s published 6:30 a.m. (April–October) and 7:00 a.m. (November–March). We found no official notice of a change yet, so check the trust’s website before you go.
• 15 June 2026 foundation day: the Bhowali–Kainchi road was a “zero zone” on 14 and 15 June, closed to private vehicles. Visitors used fixed-fare shuttles from Haldwani (₹150), Nainital and Bhimtal (₹100), and Bhowali and Khairna (₹50) per person one way, and drones needed permission (News18, 13 June 2026).
• Hotels fined: 22 homestays and hotels in the Kainchi area were fined ₹10,000 each for running more rooms than registered (PTI, 9 October 2026).
• Scam warning: on 21 May 2026 the Kainchi trust warned that a fake “bhandara at Kainchi Mandir” message was asking devotees for money. It says the trust never asks for donations through such messages and runs no room booking.
• UP’s Neeb Karori Baba circuit: on 1 October 2026 Uttar Pradesh announced a circuit linking Akbarpur (Firozabad), the Farrukhabad ashram, Hanuman Setu (Lucknow) and the Vrindavan samadhi temple, plus five UPSTDC tour packages of 2 to 5 days (The Indian Express, 2 October 2026). UPSTDC’s 3-day Lucknow package is listed at ₹21,000 per person by sedan.
• Vrindavan crowds: thousands of devotees came to the Vrindavan samadhi ashram for the 53rd death anniversary (Anant Chaturdashi, 25 September 2026). Dainik Bhaskar reported that crowds have grown many times over since the film Hanuman Ansh was released.
• Lucknow traffic change: from 14 March 2026 the main road in front of Hanuman Setu Mandir was closed to through traffic when the second phase of the Green Corridor opened. A cut behind the temple now gives access (Amar Ujala, 15 March 2026).

Tips before you visit any of these ashrams

• Don’t pay anyone for Kainchi rooms or darshan. The trust says it has no agents and no room booking, and it has flagged at least one fake website offering ashram stays.
• Check official updates first. For Kainchi, use the trust’s “Updates” page and Nainital Police traffic plans, especially on weekends, long weekends and around 15 June.
• For the other ashrams, no official hours are published except at Neeb Karori Dham (closed 12–2 p.m.) and Sankat Mochan, Shimla. Confirm locally before a long trip.
• Plan the Kumaon leg together. Kainchi, Kakrighat, Bhumiyadhar and Hanuman Garhi are all in Nainital district. If you are combining the trip with the Corbett area, see our Jim Corbett safari ticket prices guide.

FAQ

How many Neem Karoli Baba ashrams are there in India?

There is no official count. The Kainchi trust says the saint never encouraged his name to be linked with the temples he had built, and that it serves only Kainchi, Kakrighat and Bhumiyadhar. This list covers the places that an official page or a dated news report links to him.

Which is the main Neem Karoli Baba ashram?

Kainchi Dham near Nainital is the best-known and the busiest. The Farrukhabad district website calls Neeb Karori Dham the “principal” dham, and Vrindavan holds his samadhi temple.

What are Kainchi Dham’s timings?

The trust’s FAQ lists 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. from April to October and 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. from November to March. Officials have discussed a 4 a.m. opening (October 2026), but we found no official change yet.

Can I stay inside Kainchi Dham?

Not by booking. The trust says the few rooms are for priests and staff, and anyone offering to book a room there is not authorised. Visitors usually stay in Bhowali, Bhimtal or Nainital.

Is registration needed to visit Kainchi Dham?

Not as of 22 October 2026. A registration system with a daily cap has been proposed but was still awaiting government approval in the reports we found.

Where is Neem Karoli Baba’s samadhi?

In his ashram on Parikrama Marg in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, where he died on 11 September 1973 (Kainchi trust).

Sources: shreekainchimandirtrust.org (FAQ, About, Updates, Contact), nainital.nic.in, farrukhabad.nic.in, hpshimla.nic.in, incredibleindia.gov.in, upstdc.co.in, nkbashram.org (devotee site), The Indian Express, PTI/ET Infra, India Today, News18, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala and Uttarakhand News Network. All checked 22 October 2026. Timings can change, so check the official page before you travel.