Despite weather vagaries, over one lakh pilgrims visit Amarnath in 10-days

Despite weather playing spoilsport and the Srinagar-Jammu highway still remaining closed, over one lakh pilgrims from different parts of the country visited the Amarnath holy cave to perform darshan in the first ten days of the annual pilgrimage.

The yatra commenced on July 1 but was suspended for two days from July 6-8 due to incessant rains and landslides on the twin routes of Baltal in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district and Chandanwari in southern Anantnag district.

The 62-days annual pilgrimage, longest in history, will culminate on August 31, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan and Shravan Purnima.

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As per the official figures, over one lakh pilgrims paid obeisance at the 3,880 metre-high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas till July 10 evening. The total pilgrims performing the darshan of the naturally-formed Ice Lingam in the cave shrine till July 10 evening was 1,18,157, an official said.

However, the yatra remained suspended from Jammu for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday due to the closure of the 264 km Srinagar-Jammu national highway. "No fresh batch of pilgrims was allowed to leave the Yatri Niwas base camp at Bhagwati Nagar for the onward journey to the holy cave due to extensive damage caused to a section of the highway in Ramban,” the official added.

He said while 12,000 pilgrims are stranded at Jammu's Bhagwati Nagar base camp and Chanderkot base camp in Ramban district, thousands of pilgrims who performed darshan are stranded at Yatri Niwas and Walnut Factory in Qazigund area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.

Every year, thousands of devotees undertake the yatra in July and August to pay obeisance at the shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva. Last year around 3.65 lakh pilgrims offered prayers at the Shrine despite a cloudburst hitting the yatra camp, killing 15 pilgrims on July 8.