This year's upcoming Thaipusam festival has reportedly been hit by a shortage of coconuts which are broken as part of the rituals.

The Star newspaper said that last month's coconut harvest was badly affected by the unusually heavy monsoon season, and there might not be enough to go around during the Feb 11 celebrations.

"Now I only have about 5,000 coconuts at my shop and they are not enough to meet orders," said wholesaler M Joel Jeyachandran, adding that his supply was half of last year's.

The price of coconuts in the northern resort island of Penang has already nearly doubled to RM1.40, it said.

Thaipusam is celebrated by some two million Hindus in several places in Malaysia but the centrepiece is at Batu Caves outside Kuala Lumpur, a limestone cavern which attracts up to 1.5 million devotees and tourists.

Worshippers pierced with hooks and skewers in their tongues, cheeks, chests and backs shoulder heavy structures called kavadis as they walk barefoot up the temple's 272 steps in a form of penance.