Over 7000 perform darshan
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 27: The holy Amarnath Ji Yatra 2024 has created a record of sorts in last 29 days of pilgrimage by surpassing the last year’s record of 4.45 lakh pilgrims who had visited the holy cave during 62 days pilgrimage.
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Officials said on the 29th day of pilgrimage today 7,145 yatris drawn from different parts of country visited the cave shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji by this evening taking the total number of pilgrims visiting Himalayan cave to 4,51,485 while in last year during entire yatra period of 62 days which started on July 1 and culminated on August 31, 4.45 lakh pilgrims had visited cave shrine. The number in 29 days of yatra this year is over 6000 more than previous year.
Officials said that this year lot of enthusiasm is being seen among the pilgrims visiting the cave shrine and this is because of improvement in the services and infrastructural facilities created by Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), UT administration as well as Langer organizations.
Among the 7145 pilgrims who visited Himalayan cave situated at an altitude of 3888 meters in Lidder Valley of South Kashmir from twin tracks of Baltal and Nunwan beside special choppers included 4432 males, 1621 females, 98 children, 102 Sadhus, two Sadhvis, three others and 887 service providers and security forces personnel, officials said.
They said the weather in entire yatra area was partly cloudy but the pilgrimage passed smoothly during the day. All the pilgrims who performed darshan at cave shrine today left for Baltal base camp in Ganderbal district and Panchtarni haltage camp on Pahalgam track in Anantnag district.
Among the over 4.5 lakh pilgrims who visited cave shrine till now, majority has returned to their home States while others are on the way, officials, said, adding the yatra is proceeding smoothly.
Officials said a fresh batch of 1771 pilgrims left for twin base camps of Nunwan-Pahalgam and Ganderbal-Sonamarg in Kashmir valley under tight security arrangements early this morning from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here in a cavalcade of 63 light and heavy motor vehicles.
This is the lowest batch of pilgrims leaving for holy cave since the first batch left from here on June 28, officials said.
They included 1269 males, 398 females, one child, 93 Sadhus and 10 Sadhvis. Among them, 772 pilgrims chose the toughest and small Baltal -Sonamarg track while 999 preferred the longest and traditional Nunwan-Chandanwari route.
All these pilgrims have reached their respective base camps by this evening, officials said, adding they will leave for cave shrine from there early tomorrow morning.
Officials said that the pilgrims who had reported at their respective base camps yesterday left for the holy cave early this morning. The 52-day pilgrimage to holy cave will culminate on August 19 when the Chhari Mubarak led by Mahant Deependra Giri Ji, its sole custodian will reach cave shrine for darshan from its abode Dashnami Akhara, Srinagar.
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