Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 2: As 52-day -long annual Yatra of Shri Amarnath Ji is nearing culmination with only 17 days of this year’s pilgrimage left now, nearly 5000 devotees of Lord Shiva drawn from different parts of country paid obeisance to naturally formed Ice Shivlingam in Himalayan cave in Lidder Valley of South Kashmir on 35th day of pilgrimage today while a fresh batch of 1221 yatris left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here early this morning under tight security arrangements towards twin base camps in Nunwan-Pahalgam in South Kashmir district of Anantnag and Baltal-Sonamarg in Central Kashmir district of Ganderbal in a cavalcade of 54 light and heavy motor vehicles.
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Officials said on 35th day of pilgrimage, 4972 Yatris from twin tracks of Baltal and Nunwan besides special chopper services paid obeisance at holy cave situated at an altitude of 3888 meters. They included 2737 male, 1027 female, 133 children, 164 Sadhus and 866 security force personnel. With this, a total number of 4,85,314 pilgrims visited the holy cave in last 35 days.
The pilgrims, who performed darshan at cave shrine returned to Baltal base camp and Panchtarni haltage camp by this evening, officials added.
Officials said among the fresh batch of 1221 pilgrims who left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas for twin base camps early this morning included 958 males, 222 females, six children, 32 Sadhu and three Sadhvis. Out of them, 395 preferred the shortest but tough terrain Baltal track while 826 opted for the longest but traditional Nunwan Chandanwari route. All these pilgrims have reached to their respective base camps by this evening where from they will leave for holy cave early tomorrow morning. This is the lowest batch of pilgrims which left for holy cave from here since the pilgrimage started on June 29, officials added.
They said that the pilgrims who reported twin base camps in Kashmir valley yesterday have also started their journey towards the cave shrine early this morning.
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