Amarnath Yatra: This year, there is a grand festival in Lord Shiva’s holy mountain cave, “Shri Amarnath Cave.” A huge rush of devotees can be seen at the cave, breaking all previous records. In the first five days, more than 1 lakh devotees had the divine darshan of Lord Shiva’s naturally made Sivalingam, creating a new history.
The number of pilgrims visiting Shri Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir has broken all previous records. In the first five days, more than 1 lakh pilgrims completed the pilgrimage and had darshan of Baba Bholenath. This is a new record for the number of visitors in the first five days of the Amarnath Yatra, which started on June 29.
According to the Shrine Board of Amarnath Yatra, on July 3, more than 30,000 pilgrims paid obeisance at the holy shrine, bringing the total number of pilgrims to more than 1 lakh. The Shrine Board has said that in the last five days since the start of the Yatra, 1,05,282 people have visited the holy shrine, which is the highest number in the first five days so far in the history of the Amarnath Yatra.
This figure was crossed in the first ten days of the Yatra in 2023. The 3,888-meter-high mountain cave temple of Lord Shiva is one of the most revered temples in Hinduism and is considered one of the “Dhams” of the “Char Dham” pilgrimage.
Sandeep said, “I enjoyed a lot. This time there was a lot of rush of devotees who took the pilgrimage. The government had made very good arrangements, and the road is very wide now. I have never seen so many devotees before. The roads which I had seen earlier have improved a lot this time.” Chander Bhan, another devotee, added, “I enjoyed a lot. There was a lot of rush, but there were good arrangements from the government, and security was very good. It was the most crowded of all the pilgrimages I have done so far, but the security was good, and all arrangements were good. This is my eighth Yatra. Now the road is very wide. We went up to the cave from Pahalgam and came down from Baltal. The weather is a little hot; if it rains, it will be better. There was a lot of crowd, and we had darshan after waiting in line for two hours.”
About one lakh security personnel have been deployed for the security of both the routes of Amarnath Yatra in the Union Territory. Security forces are deployed at every corner from Lakhanpur in Punjab to Jammu and then Kashmir to ensure that every part of the Yatra is completely safe. Besides this, the Yatra routes have been widened a lot this time, allowing 20-30 thousand pilgrims to climb to the holy cave from both routes. Along with the road, the weather was also pleasant in the first week, and the arrangements were good.
The Jammu and Kashmir police have made adequate security arrangements, and the Jammu and Kashmir government has set up a digital high-tech command control center for real-time monitoring of the Amarnath Yatra routes. This will help the government regulate the Yatra smoothly. The 52-day long pilgrimage will end on August 19 on the auspicious occasion of Shravan Purnima, the day when the festival of Raksha Bandhan is celebrated.
