1st Day Amarnath Yatra

12,717 pilgrims will move towards holy shrine

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, June 27: 12,717 yatris have registration for the first day of annual Amarnath yatra which is going to start from June 28.

Out of those 3157 devotees from different party of the India starting their journey from Jammu Yatri Niwas, Bhagwati Nagar today morning at 5 am. 


Official said 6567 pilgrims have registered to travel by the Baltal route will have the darshan of Ice Lingam by tomorrow only whereas and 6150 by the Pahalgam route will have darshan after two days.

The first batch of the yatri from Jammu was flagged off by Minister of Tourism, Ghulam Ahmad Mir. The minister was accompanied by Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Pardeep Gupta and Deputy Commissioner, Jammu A K Sahu besides higher officials of police department and bureaucrats. 


Official disclosed that for this year’s yatra the Shrine Board has fixed a ceiling of 7500 Yatris per day per route. This excludes pilgrims who travel by the Heli services upto Panjtarni, 6 kms short of the Shrine, whose number may normally vary between 1000-1400, depending upon the number of sorties which are undertaken during the day, which would be based on the weather conditions. 


From Jammu the 3157 yatris included 2466 males, 563 females, 37 children and 91 sadhus in 75 buses and 21 Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) moved towards base camp Srinagar. The pilgrims shouting slogans ‘Bum Bum Bole’, singing bhajans and dancing. 


This yatra would conclude on the day of Shrawan Purnima one day before Raksha Bandhan. Last year 6.21 lakh pilgrims had performed darshan at holy cave. 


“As per the SHPC recommendation which has been endorsed by the Supreme Court’s decision, the District Administration is bound to stop all those Yatris who attempt to undertake the yatra without valid registration” said a official. 


“In view of the inclement weather in entire state during last 24 hours, the Chief Executive Officer and the Divisional and District Administrations are closely monitoring the situation and, if needed suitable advisories will be issued at the appropriate time” official added. 


In is pertinent to mention here that the Shrine Board had opened 422 Registration Counters across the country, against 174 last year and, further, this year Registration was commenced three months in advance of the Yatra to ensure that every intending pilgrim could timely go through the registration.