About 7500 yatris leave Baltal and Palagam for Amarnath

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Srinagar, July 2 (UNI) Unfazed by melting of the naturally-formed ice stalagmite of Lord Shiva (Shivalingam) at the holy cave shrine of Amarnath, bad weather and militant threats, 7500 yatris today left Baltal and Nunwan Pahalam base camp for Amarnath.

The first batch of 2356 pilgrims, including women, children and saints who left Jammu this morning, are on their way to base camps.

The official pilgrimage was scheduled to start on June 30 but was delayed due to heavy rains on both the traditional Pahalgam and shortest Baltal routes.

Official sources said about 4000 pilgrims today left Baltal for cave shrine after the track, damaged due to heavy rains, was repaired while other 3500 yatris left for Nunwan Pahalgam camp after further improvement in the weather.

Meanwhile, about 3000 pilgrims, who were stranded at different halting points on Pahalgam-cave route and near cave shrine were allowed to proceed towards their respective destinations.

About ten thousand unregistered pilgrims had visited the shrine during the past two weeks.

Yesterday, the Shrine board officials said the Shivalingam has almost melted completely following rise in the temperature around the cave shrine.

Holy cave shrine Director M K Raina said ''The 'ice-lingam' which is twelve-and-a-half feet in height and eight feet in circumference in the first week of June has ''dramatically'' shrunk and reduced to one-tenth of its original size three days ago.'' Mahant Deependra Giri, the custodian of Charri-Mubarak Swami Amarnath (holy mace of Lord Shiva) blamed the shrine board for disappearance of the ice stalagmite at the holy cave shrine, charging them with violating the sanctity of the holy pilgrimage by extending its duration to two months.

The unregulated flow of pilgrims and other factors such as increased chopper sorties, use of generators and presence of too many people near the Amarnath shrine had led to the disappearance of the ice-lingam at the holy cave, the Mahant added.

UNI

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X