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Amarnath yatra takes off

The annual month long pilgrimage to the holy Amarnath cave began on Monday with 3500 yatris (pilgrims) proceeding from Jammu for a darshan (glimpse) of the holy lingam (shrine) with the state administration making tight security arrangements in the light of last year's carnage that left 35 pilgrims dead and more than 60 injured.

The pilgrims left Jammu on Monday morning in 148 heavily escorted vehicles for Pahalgham from where they will undertake a 46 km mountain trek to reach the mouth of the Amarnath cave up in the Himalayas at a height of 3952 metres.

Police officials in Srinagar said that para-military forces, which had been deployed in strength all along the National Highway up to the cave shrine, would be escorting the pilgrims daily from Jammu.

Senior officials are camping in Pahalgam, the base camp for the yatra, which will conclude early in August.

The alternative route to the cave shrine is via the Srinagar-Baltal road on the strategic highway connecting Ladakh with the rest of the country.

Although the uphill trek from the foothills of the Zojilla Pass, which begins from Baltal, enables pilgrims to complete the to and fro journey of 12 kms in just one day, the trek is treacherous as it takes the pilgrim through narrow gorges and slippery paths where two persons can barely stand together.

Ponies and porters have been placed at the disposal of pilgrims who are old or infirm. Medical camps have been set up all along the yatra route both on the Pahalgam side as well as the Baltal side.

Additional security is in place along both the routes. Keeping in view its remoteness and inaccessibility, an army brigade has been deployed at Baltal to cater to the security of the pilgrims.

Already over 100,000 persons have registered themselves for the pilgrimage.

In light of recommendations of J R Mukerjee committee, which went into the killings of yatris at Pahalgam last year, and the Nitish Sen Gupta committee, which probed the death of over 300 pilgrims in 1996 due to landslides and cloudbursts, it was decided that each day only 700 yatris would be allowed to proceed on the Baltal route and 2800 pilgrims via the Pahalgam route.

A piquant situation has arisen for Kashmiri Pandits still living in the Valley as all the registration offices for enlisting pilgrims are located outside the Valley. The Pandits have to go all the way to Jammu to just register themselves before proceeding towards the shrine.

Talking to rediff.com in Srinagar, Mahant Dipendra Giri said, "Confining the registration process to a few places deprives many devotees the opportunity to visit the shrine. Ideally, district magistrates all over the country should be allowed to register pilgrims."

The Mahant also said that this year the yatris would be offering special peace prayers for the success of the Indo-Pak summit.

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