Heavy rush at Katra on New Year eve
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 31: Nearly 9.5 million pilgrims visited holy cave shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji this year despite back-to-back elections to Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly in J&K and terror strike on Shiv Khori pilgrims at Reasi on June 9.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
Around 94.80 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance to Goddess Vaishno Devi Ji this year, just 42,000 less than the previous year when annual pilgrimage stood at 95.22 lakh.
Click here to watch video
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) CEO Anshul Garg told the Excelsior that there was heavy rush of pilgrims today and the yatra is being regulated as per the guidelines.
“Number of the yatris had crossed 32,000 at 6 pm,’’ he said.
The pilgrimage this year stood at 94.80 lakh as against 95.22 lakh in 2023 and 91.25 lakh in 2022, Garg said.
Only 17 lakh pilgrims, the lowest in over three decades, visited the shrine in 2020 when it remained closed for five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pilgrim footfall at the shrine touched an all-time high of 1.04 crore in 2012.
The number of pilgrims visiting the shrine dropped from 93.24 lakh in 2013 to 78.03 lakh in 2014, 77.76 lakh in 2015 and 77.23 lakh in 2016. It increased to 81.78 lakh in 2017 and 85.87 lakh in 2018 before dropping again in 2019 to 79.40 lakh.
This year, however, the pilgrimage came down during Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Slight decline for few days was also witnessed after terror attack on a bus carrying Shiv Khori pilgrims on June 9 in which nine yatris were killed.
During past few days, there has been shutdown in Katra and service providers are also on strike in protest against construction of ropeway project to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine.
Despite all these factors, the yatra narrowly missed one crore mark.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
