Yatra to holy cave progressing smoothly, over 2.17 lakh pay obeisance so far

Srinagar, Jul 19 :  Despite wet weather, pilgrimage was progressing smoothly as fresh batches of pilgrims today left Nunwan Pahalgam and Batal base camps for the holy Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, where so far over 2.17 lakh yatris have paid obeisance since the commencement of the 40-day-long pilgrimage from June 29. A fresh batch of pilgrims, including women and sadhus, left Bagwati Nagar, Jammu base camp for base camps in Kashmir early this morning despite wet weather under unprecedented security arrangements. The yatra was progressing smoothly from both shortest Baltal and traditional Pahalgam tracks despite rain, a yatra official told UNI. He said on the 20th day yesterday 5,826 yatris paid obeisance at the Holy Cave. With this, a total of over 2,16,555 yatris had the darshan at the Holy Cave till this morning. Meanwhile, pilgrims, who had night halt at Panjterni, 2 km from the cave shrine on traditional route, are paying obeisance since early this morning. A fresh batch of yatris left Baltal for the cave shrine to reach the cave shrine. The pilgrims are expected to reach the cave shrine, situated at 14,000 feet in the afternoon after covering 14 km hilly terrain on foot. Majority of the yatris will try to return to base camp after paying obeisance while other will have night stay in the camp near the cave shrine. Meanwhile, pilgrims who had reached the cave from traditional track are also returning via Baltal track. Similarly, fresh batch of pilgrims, who had a night halt at Nunwan Pahalgam base camp, also left for Chandanwari, the last motorable halting station on the traditional track. Meanwhile, pilgrims who had night halt at different halting stations on the traditional route have also started their foot journey towards the cave shrine this morning. UNI