As rush dies down, Amarnath Yatra to run on alternate days

With a considerable decrease in the number of pilgrims visiting the Amarnath cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas, authorities have decided to run the pilgrimage on alternate days from Saturday.

On August 11, the 42nd day of the yatra, over 1,600 pilgrims from various parts of the country paid obeisance to the naturally formed ice Shivlingam of Lord Shiva in a 3888-meter-high cave.

In the initial weeks of the yatra, which commenced on July 1, over 15,000 pilgrims used to have darshan daily at the cave shrine.

With the constant decline in the rush, Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which manages the annual yatra, has decided to run the yatra on alternate days from Jammu to the holy cave, officials said.

In comparison to thousands of pilgrims reporting at Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu daily in July to proceed towards the holy cave, the number has been confined to a few hundred pilgrims now.

Baltal, in central Ganderbal district, is one of the twin routes for the annual pilgrimage and another one is Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

This year so far a total of 4,30,073 pilgrims have visited the holy cave. The 62-day annual pilgrimage, longest in the history, will culminate on August 31 coinciding with Raksha Bandhan and Shravan Purnima.

Thousands of pilgrims each year undertake the Amarnath Yatra to the shrine cave to worship an ice stalagmite called Shivlingam, believed to be the symbol of Lord Shiva, the god of destruction and regeneration.