Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 8: Pilgrimage to holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi ji today crossed the figure of one crore for second consecutive year and was all set to break previous year’s record of 1.02 crore during this year.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Goddess Vaishno Devi reached 1 crore at 2 pm today.
With 23 days remaining and rush of winter vacations ahead, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) authorities were expecting the pilgrimage this year to be around 1.05 crore.
Additional CEO SMVDSB, Dr Mandeep K Bhandari was supervising arrangements for the pilgrims during upcoming rush in winter vacations. Presently, on an average, 10,000 to 15,000 pilgrims were visiting the cave shrine daily but the number was expected to go up significantly after December 20 when there would be winter and Christmas vacations across the country.
Authorities were expecting 1 crore pilgrimage every year from now onwards or even more in view of ever increasing rush of the devotees to the shrine of Goddess Vaishno Devi ji, located between Trikuta hills in Katra.
Pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi was 13.95 lakh in 1986 when the SMVDSB had taken over affairs of the shrine. Since then, the yatra continued to go up every year creating new records.
It was for the first time in 1991 that the pilgrimage crossed 3 million (31.15 lakh). The 4 million mark was reached in 1996 while the yatra reached 50 lakh in 2000 and 60 lakh in 2004. It was in 2007 that the yatra stood at 74.17 lakh.
The pilgrimage came down to 67.92 lakh in 2008 due to two months long Amarnath land agitation but again went up to 82 lakh in 2009 and reached 87.2 lakh in 2010. It was for the first time in 2011 that the yatra crossed 10 million mark and stood at 1.02 crore.
This was for the first time during current year that the pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine crossed 10 lakh for three consecutive months. It was 12.3 lakh in May, 12.62 lakh in June and 12.01 lakh in July. It missed 10 lakh figure in August by 16,000. Last year, the pilgrimage had crossed 10 lakh figure in July and August (11.21 lakh and 10.05 lakh respectively).
During the month of January this year, the yatra stood at 4.59 lakh up from 4.21 lakh of last year while in February it was 3.92 lakh again up from last year’s figure of 3.69 lakh while in the month of March. However, it was in the month of April when yatra slightly came down to 9.61 lakh from previous year’s 10.32 lakh.
In May, the yatra was 12.3 lakh up from last year’s 9.37 lakh, in June it was 12.62 lakh up from 12.07 lakh and in July it stood at 12.01 lakh from last year’s 11.27 lakh. In August, September and October, the pilgrimage was 9.84 lakh, 8.77 lakh and 9.92 lakh as compared to 10.05 lakh, 8.25 lakh and 8.72 lakh respectively.
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