Over 5000 perform darshan
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Aug 1: With over 5,000 pilgrims drawn from different parts of the country paying obeisance to naturally formed Ice Shivlingam at 3888 metre high Himalayan cave, the 62-day long annual Amarnath Ji yatra crossed four lakh in last 32 days.
As per reports, Pankaj Modi, the brother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also reached Srinagar today where from he will leave for darshan of holy cave tomorrow.
Officials said 5,542 pilgrims from twin tracks of Baltal and Nunwan-Pahalgam performed darshan at the shrine by this evening taking the total number of yatris who visited holy cave during last 32 days of darshan to 4,0,3041.
The pilgrims who performed darshan today included 4,287 male, 1,132 female, 53 children, 69 Sadhus and one Sadhvi.
Weather in entire cave shrine area remained pleasant and sunny during the day and yatra proceeded normally from both the tracks, officials said.
They said that 1,310 pilgrims were staying at Sheshnag transit camp during last night while 6,811 yatris were camping at Baltal base camp during the night.
Officials said 1,206 pilgrims left for holy cave from Baltal base camp in the early morning while 1,389 reached base camp after performing darshan at holy cave by this evening. Besides, 5,114 pilgrims left for their home States from Baltal base camp today.
Officials said the majority of pilgrims who performed the darshan at cave shrine in last 32 days have returned to their home States while others are on the way. The pilgrims who performed darshan at cave shrine today also started their return journey towards the base camp of Baltal and transit camp on Panchtarni, officials said.
They said except one chopper which developed a snag, the chopper services also plied normally during the day to ferry the pilgrims to and fro.
Officials said the number of pilgrims visiting the holy cave has come down and there is no such rush which used to be during first three weeks of the yatra.
Meanwhile, 30th batch of 1,006 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here early this morning under tight security arrangements in a cavalcade of 45 vehicles for twin base camps of Nunwan-Pahalgam and Baltal, officials said.
Among them, 624 pilgrims choose the longest and traditional Nunwan-Pahalgam track in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district while 382 opted for the shortest but tough Baltal route in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
These pilgrims included 749 male, 215 female, two children, 37 Sadhus and three Sadhvi. This is the lowest batch of pilgrims which left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas since the first batch of pilgrims towards the holy cave was flagged off on June 30.
Over two month long Amarnath Ji yatra will culminate on Shravan Purnima coinciding with Raksha Bandhan festival falling on August 31 when holy mace led by Mahant Dependra Giri Ji, it’s sole custodian, will reach the cave shrine from Dashnami Akhara for darshan.
The holy mace after performing traditional Puja and religious rituals in the cave shrine will return towards Panchtarni in the evening of same day. After a night halt at Panchtarni it will start its return journey towards Pahalgam on way to Dashnami Akhara, Srinagar later.
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