Yatra inches close to 1.5 lakh

Correspondent vsk

JAMMU, July 1: Even after seven days of annual pilgrimage of Baba Amarnath ji in South Kashmir Himalayas, there had been no let up in heavy rush of yatris at the holy cave shrine. Today, 20,549 yatris performed darshan of holy Ice Lingam of Lord Shiva in the shrine taking total number of pilgrims having paid obeisance during last seven days of yatra to 1.43 lakh. Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) Director, Amarnath Shrine, BD Mengi said 20,549 pilgrims today paid obeisance before holy Ice Lingam of Lord Shiva in Shri Amarnath ji cave shrine. With this, total number of yatris having performed darshan of Lord Shiva’s Ice Lingam during seven days of yatra has gone up to 1,42,976. More than 19,000 pilgrims today left shortest Baltal and traditional Nunwan Pahalgam base camps for holy Amarnath cave shrine, situated at 13,500 feet in South Kashmir Himalayas.

Official reports said 10,410 yatris, including men, women, children and Sadhus, left Pahalgam early this morning for Chandanwari, the last motorable halting station on the traditional route. However, some of them, who were already camping at Chandanwari, joined them to proceed towards next halting station.

Similarly, yatris at different halt points enroute also started their onward journey this morning, while those who had darshan started their return journey.

They added that 8,663 pilgrims left Baltal for the holy cave.

The authorities had made all arrangements for smooth yatra on both tracks and base camps, they said.

A Met department spokesman said the sky would remain cloudy and there would be one or two spells of rains on both the tracks today while there will be no large change in weather during next 24 hours.

From Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas base camp in Jammu, eighth batch of 4,268 pilgrims today left for the holy shrine under tight security arrangements.

Amid chantings of ‘Bam Bam Bhole’, the fresh batch of devotees left from Yatri Niwas base camp at 5 am.

The batch comprising 3009 males, 821 females, 145 children and 293 Sadhus left in a convoy of 156 vehicles including 43 SRTC buses, 30 private and 83 Light Motor Vehicles.

With today’s batch, as many as 23,677 pilgrims have left Jammu in eight officials batches for their onward journey to the cave shrine.

Meanwhile, five more devotees died due to cardiac arrest at Pahalgam and Baltal base camps raising the death toll in the ongoing annual Amarnath pilgrimage to 19.

Megha Gupta, aged 24 years, a resident of Chandigarh, suffered a massive heart attack at Pahalgam last night while on her way to Amarnath cave shrine, police said.

64-year-old Jagbir Singh from Haryana and Rinku (55) from Tamil Nadu died at Sonamarg on shorter Baltal route, they said.

Hailing from Madhya Pradesh, 83-year-old Babu Singh died at Baltal base camp after paying obeisance, while, an unidentified man was found dead at Domail, police said.

With this, the death toll since the commencement of the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas rose to 19, they said.

Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) has been forced to open six on-the-spot registration counters as a large number of unregistered pilgrims had turned up at various base camps of the annual yatra in the guise of tourists.

According to sources, SASB opened on-the-spot registration counters after a large number of unregistered pilgrims arrived at Pahalgam and Baltal base camps on commencement of the pilgrimage to the 3880-metre high cave shrine.

“Hundreds of unregistered yatris managed to sneak through the security barricades set up by police and CRPF en route the cave shrine. Stopping such a huge number of people would have led to law and order problem”, sources added.

While four counters have been opened in Kashmir at Nunwan, Chandanwari, Baltal and Tourist Reception Centre Srinagar, two counters have been opened in Jammu, they said.

Board’s CEO Naveen K Chaudhury admitted that on-the-spot registration counters have been opened, but said there was no question of allowing unregistered pilgrims for the yatra.

“There were some problems on the first day of the pilgrimage but not a single unregistered yatri has been allowed to proceed towards the holy cave after that”, Chaudhury said.

The CEO said the registration for the pilgrimage was still open and so far more than four lakh persons have registered themselves for the yatra.

Chaudhury appealed to the yatris not to embark on the pilgrimage without securing a valid registration as this may cause inconvenience not only to themselves but also to the other yatris.

Asked about the high number of deaths in the ongoing pilgrimage, he said the pilgrims are not coming prepared for the arduous journey even though the SASB had carried out a massive awareness campaign about the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’.

“The deaths have taken place even after deploying so many doctors, paramedics and life saving equipment. The pilgrims do not come with prior acclimatization for this journey”, he said.

He asked the devotees to immediately contact the nearest medical camps in case of any health issue to obtain timely medical attention.