In the wake of the steep spike in Covid-19 cases across the country, including in Jammu and Kashmir, Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) onThursday decided to suspend the registration process for the pilgrimage.
An official of the SASB said that the situation was being monitored keenly and that only the registration process has been suspended and no call had been taken regarding the Yatra as yet.
A decision vis-à-vis Amarnath Yatra 2021 will be taken by the board accordingly, the official added.
The online registration process for the yatra had started on April 15, simultaneously for both the Baltal and the Chandanwari routes, through 446 designated branches of the Punjab National Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank and YES Bank all over the country.
Last year, the annual yatra was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic while in 2019 the pilgrimage was cut short following intelligence inputs on ‘terror threats’ ahead of the Centre scrapping Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
This year, expected to be the largest yatra, six lakh yatris are anticipated to pay obeisance at the 3,888-metre-high Amarnathji cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas during the 56-day-long annual pilgrimage which is scheduled to begin on June 28 and conclude on August 22, the day of Raksha Bandhan.
It may be recalled that after the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) took the control of the yatra in 2001, the number of pilgrims who visited the holy cave was 1.91 lakh in the first year, followed by 1.10 lakh in 2002, 1.70 lakh in 2003, 4 lakh in 2004, 3.88 lakh in 2005, 3.47 lakh in 2006, 2.96 lakh in 2007, 5.33 lakh in 2008, 3.81 lakh in 2009, 4.55 lakh in 2010, 6.21 lakh in 2011, 6.35lakh in 2012, 3.54 lakh in 2013, 3.72 lakh in 2014, 3.52 lakh in 2015, 2.21 lakh in 2016, 2.60 lakh in 2017 and 2.85 lakh in 2018.
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