No pilgrim batch leaves for Amarnath shrine

Jammu, August 6

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No fresh batch of pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here for the cave shrine of Amarnath in the south Kashmir Himalayas on Saturday, officials said amid a decline in the footfall of the devotees. On August 2, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had appealed to the Amarnath pilgrims to wrap up their visit the cave shrine before August 5 in view of a forecast of inclement weather.

L-G sinha’s appeal

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had recently appealed to the Amarnath pilgrims to wrap up their visit before August 5 in view of a forecast of inclement weather and more rains.

The 43-day annual pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine had commenced on June 30 on the twin routes—the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam route in Anantnag and the 14-km Baltal route in Ganderbal.

The pilgrimage is scheduled to end on August 11 on the occasion of Shravan Purnima coinciding with Raksha Bandhan. “No fresh batch of Amarnath pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here for the valley on Saturday,” a police official said.

Sources said the number of devotees intending to undertake the Yatra witnessed a substantial decline over the last week due to the premature melting of the naturally formed ice-shivling at the cave shrine.