Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 28: On the 30th day of holy pilgrimage near 7000 Yatris drawn from different parts of country paid obeisance at naturally formed Ice Shivlingam in Shri Amarnath Ji cave today while a fresh batch of 1677 Yatris left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here early this morning towards twin base camps of Nunwan -Pahalgam in South Kashmir district of Anantnag and Baltal -Sonamarg in Central Kashmir district of Ganderbal under tight security measures in cavalcade of 67 heavy and light vehicles.
Officials said 6905 pilgrims drawn from various parts of the country performed Darshan at Himalayan cave situated at a height of 3888 meters in Lidder Valley of South Kashmir from twin tracks of Baltal and Chandanwari besides special choppers on 30th day of pilgrimage which started on June 29 by this evening .
Officials said with this a total number of 4,58,786 pilgrims visited the holy cave in last 30 days which is about 13,000 more pilgrims who visited the cave shrine in 62 days of pilgrimage last year.
Among the 6905 pilgrims who visited holy cave today included 4044 male, 1655 female, 124children, 145 Sadhus, , three others besides 934 service providers and security forces personnel, officials said, adding majority of the pilgrims among the 4.58 lakh pilgrims who visited the cave shrine so far have returned to their home states while others are on the way.
Officials said the pilgrims who performed darshan at cave shrine by this evening started their return journey towards Baltal Base camp and Panchtarni Haltage camp on Nunwan Pahalgam track. The pilgrims who left via Baltal will leave for their home states early tomorrow morning from there. But the pilgrims who left via Panchtarni track will reach Pahalgam two days later.
Officials said there has been considerably decline in the rush of pilgrimage and the number of Bhandars serving the pilgrims will also be decreased now.
Among the 1677 pilgrims who left for holy cave from here included 1343 male 228 female, two children and 83 Sadhus. Among them 408 pilgrims preferred the shortest but terrain Baltal track while 1269 preferred the longest but traditional Nunwan-Chandanwari track, officials said.
This is the lowest batch which left Jammu in last 31 days towards the holy cave, officials added.
Officials said that all these pilgrims have reached to their respective base camps by this evening wherefrom they will leave for darshan of holy cave early tomorrow morning. The pilgrims who chose the Baltal track will reach holy cave by tomorrow evening while those from Nunwan Chandanwari will reach after three days by having night haltages at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni respectively.
The 52 -day long holy pilgrimage of Swami Amarnath Ji will culminate on Sawan Purnima coinciding with Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan falling on August 19 after the holy mace of Lord Shiva led by its sole custodian Mahant Deependra Giri Ji will reach the cave shrine from its abode Dashnami Akhara, Srinagar. Hundreds of Sadhus and devotees as per tradition will join the Chhari Yatra from Srinagar to cave shrine.
The holy mace after performing Puja in a traditional way at cave shrine on the auspicious occasion of Sawan Purnima will return for Panchtarni in the evening of the same day where from it will proceed to Pahalgam next day.
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