Highest 20,915 pay obeisance, Yatra to break last year’s record this week

SRINAGAR: With almost 2.60 lakh Yatris paying paid obeisance at the Holy Cave on the 20th day of the ongoing Shri Amarnathji Yatra, the pilgrimage this year is all set to break 2018’s record this week, even as the elusive since 2015 figure of three lakh is not far.
This came as almost 21 thousand devotees had darshans on Saturday, highest in one day even as yatra resumed from Baltal route, after remaining suspending due to slippery track conditions on Friday.
“The Yatra commenced from both Baltal and Pahalgam routes and is progressing smoothly.
“On the 20th day of the ongoing Shri Amarnathji Yatra, 20,915 Yatris paid obeisance at the Holy Cave.
Till date, 2,59,889 Yatris had the darshan of the Shivling at the Holy Cave,” an official spokesman of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board said.
In enthusiasm still high from devotees coming from across the country, the Yatra is expected to break last year’s record.
In 2018, a total of 2,85,006 yatris had paid obeisance in 60 days of the Yatra.
“With Yatra only in 20th day, it is very much likely that number crosses the three-lakh mark in this week only,” an official said.
Last time the Yatra crossed this mark was in 2015 when 3,52,771 devotees had darshans. In the successive year, the figure stood at 2,20,490 in 2016, 2,60,003 in 2017 and 2,85,006 in 2018.
Earlier this morning, a fresh batch of 4,094 pilgrims including 955 women and 144 sadhus left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu on Saturday to pay obeisance at the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir Himalayas, officials said.
So far, over 2.59 lakh pilgrims have visited the shrine since the commencement of the annual 46-day yatra on July 1, they said.
The latest batch, which also included 20 children, left in a fleet of 175 vehicles under tight security arrangements from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in the early hours of Saturday. The pilgrims will be reaching the twin base camps of Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district later in the day.
The yatra is going on smoothly from both the tracks -- traditional 36-km Pahalgam and shorter 14-km Baltal route, the officials said, adding the yatra resumed from Baltal route on Saturday morning after the upward movement was suspended Friday due to rain and slippery track conditions.
Among the pilgrims who left for the valley from the Bhawati Nagar base camp, 2,408 yatris including 389 women, nine children and 144 sadhus are performing the yatra from Pahalgam side, while 1,686 devotees including 566 women and 11 children are heading for Baltal to undertake the yatra from there, the officials said.
They said with this batch, a total of 92,069 pilgrims have left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp to undertake the yatra since June 30, a day ahead of the official commencement of the pilgrimage.
The pilgrimage is scheduled to end on August 15 coinciding the Raksha Bandhan festival.