After 3-year gap, Amarnath Yatra all set to begin today

SRINAGAR: The 43-day Amarnath Yatra to the holy cave shrine located in south Kashmir Himalayas is all set to begin on Thursday after a gap of three years. All arrangements have been put in place by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) to ensure smooth pilgrimage to the naturally formed ice-lingam at the cave shrine, officials said.

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday morning flagged off the first batch of pilgrims from Jammu base camp.

The first batch of 4,890 pilgrims left around 4 am from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for Kashmir Valley in a cavalcade of 176 light and heavy vehicles, the officials said. The Jammu and Kashmir administration is also augmenting the efforts of the shrine board by providing foolproof security cover along both the Pahalgam and Baltal routes to the holy cave, a senior official said.

The board has also made a provision of online 'darshan' for those who cannot physically undertake the pilgrimage.

"For the devotees who cannot come for the pilgrimage, they can avail the facility of online 'darshan', 'pooja', 'havan' and 'prasad'," the official said.

This year, the pilgrimage is expected to see higher than usual attendance of pilgrims as the Yatra is resuming after a gap of three years. In 2019, the Yatra was curtailed days ahead the abrogation of Article 370. The pilgrimage did not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While a senior army officer recently said the threat perception to the pilgrimage was more this year, unprecedented security arrangements have been made to ensure it remains incident-free.