LG asks pilgrims to perform Amarnath yatra before Aug 5

Jammu: The Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Tuesday advised the devotees to visit holy cave and pay obeisance at Shri Amarnath shrine before August 5 citing inclement weather.
“Over three lakh pilgrims have visited Shri Amarnathji Shrine, and advised the devotees to visit the Holy Shrine before August 5, as inclement weather is expected from the second week of this month,” LG said after performing Shri Amarnathji Chhari pujan at Mahadev Gir Dashnami Akhada in Srinagar.
As per official figure, till date nearly three lakh pilgrims have visited the Cave shrine since the beginning of sacred pilgrimage since June 30. A total of 1,43,693 pilgrims have left from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for the Valley since June 29.
The ongoing Amarnath yatra tipped to be the most planned till date with elaborate arrangements made seems to have been overwhelmed by the freaky weather, which somehow has derailed all such initiatives of the J&K government.
Sinha further said that there has been heavy rainfall over the past many days in and around the cave shrine. “The holy shiv lingam is also not in its original position due to the heat wave,” he said.
The 43-day holy pilgrimage is in its last phase which concludes on August 11 coinciding with the Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan).
The number of pilgrims visiting the cave shrine has drastically fallen in the past few days mostly due to bad weather conditions. Going by the daily figure, on an average 1000 pilgrims are paying obeisance at the cave shrine and it unlikely that yatra will cross 3.20 lakh figure.
The figure will be lower than 2019 when the government cancelled the yatra midway ahead of abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K into two union territories (on August 5, 2019). In that year over 3.42 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the shrine.
Only a symbolic yatra was observed the past two years due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. On June 21 last year, the J&K had decided to cancel this year`s Amarnath Yatra due to the Covid-19 situation in the country but all the traditional religious rituals were performed at the Holy Cave Shrine as per past practice.
However this year authorities were expecting record 6 to 8 lakh pilgrims. Even till last week of June around three lakh pilgrims had registered for the Yatra, besides there were the authorities have opened the current reservation centers as well. It clearly suggests that few devotees did not turn up for the pilgrimage despite securing advance registration.
The fewer turnouts can be attributed weather vagaries including flash flood and closure of the hioghway during the course of yatra ovar a dozen of times. A tragedy befell last month when the Yatra was halted on July 8 because of flash floods as 16 people lost their lives in the incident. Heavy rains disrupted the Yatra on few occasions either from traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag and 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir's Ganderbal.
Also the melting of Shivlingam-ice Stalagmite in the holy mountain more than 21 days before even before the annual pilgrimage officially gets over. The news too appears to have led many pilgrims to cancel the yatra.
A total of 36 people, mostly pilgrims, have died during the ongoing yatra. Besides, 15 pilgrims were killed in the flash floods at the Amarnath cave shrine on July one.
Amarnath yatra has suffered setbacks with militant threats and attacks since 1990. As many as 53 pilgrims have been killed in 36 terror attacks on the annual Amarnath yatra in last 27 years, Minister of State for Home, Hansraj Ahir had said in Lok Sabha in 2017.
In the same year, a group of militants had carried out an attack on a bus carrying the 56 pilgrims. Seven including five women were killed and fifteen were injured.
Updated On 8/3/2022 12:55:28 PM

Comment on this Story