Ahead of Amarnath yatra, light snowfall occurs around cave shrine

With much awaited annual Amarnath yatra just 12-days away, fresh light snowfall was recorded around the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas on Saturday as local Meteorological office has forecast inclement weather till June 21.

“Fresh snowfall of one to two inches was recorded at Panjtarni, including Amarnath cave on Saturday morning,” a Met official said and added the weather is likely to remain erratic till June 21.

Panjtarni is located 40 kilometres from Pahalgam base camp and 15 kilometres ahead of the last halt camp of Sheshnag on the way to the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine. The yatra takes place from the twin routes of Pahalgam in south Kashmir and Baltal in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir.

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This year it will start on June 30 and culminate on the day of Raksha Bandhan on August 11. The annual yatra was canceled in 2020 as well as 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic and only symbolic ‘Chhari Mubarak’ was taken to the cave shrine by the Mahant Deependera Giri Ji and Sadhus.

In 2019, it was cut short following intelligence inputs of terror threats ahead of the Centre scrapping Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

This year so far 2.5 lakh yatris have already registered for the pilgrimage. According to officials this year the yatra will be one of the biggest in the history of J&K as around 6-8 lakh pilgrims are expected to arrive on the pilgrimage.

Even as inclement weather is a challenging factor, as far as security arrangements are concerned, they have improved considerably which is evident from the huge tourist influx in Kashmir.