Nearly 600 pilgrims left the Yatri Niwas base camp at Bhagwati Nagar for the cave shrine of Amarnath within the south Kashmir Himalayas on Saturday.

“A total of 597 pilgrims of the 30th batch left base camp Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in a convoy of 30 vehicles heavy CRPF security this morning,” mentioned an obligation officer on the Yatri Niwas management room, including, “As many as 155 pilgrims, who opted for the Baltal route, have been the primary to go away in eight automobiles, adopted by the second convoy of twenty-two automobiles carrying 442 passengers for the Pahalgam route. The convoys left round 4.20am.”

Senior superintendent of police (SSP, traffic) Shabir Malik said that following improvement in the weather, the 270- km long Jammu-Srinagar national highway was opened for traffic without any major hiccups. “The yatra convoy from Jammu to the holy cave crossed Jawahar Tunnel. Though there are some stretches, where traffic is still one-way but traffic movement has not been suspended,” he mentioned.

The variety of pilgrims visiting the cave shrine has drastically fallen up to now three days, largely on account of inclement climate circumstances, officers mentioned, including that Saturday noticed the bottom variety of pilgrims leaving for the cave shrine within the final one week.

The annual 43-day Amarnath Yatra commenced from twin base camps — the normal 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag and 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal — on June 30.

So far, round 2.7 lakh pilgrims have supplied prayers on the cave shrine, housing the naturally shaped ice-shivlingam, the officers mentioned. The yatra is scheduled to finish on August 11, on the event of Raksha Bandhan. A complete of 36 individuals, largely pilgrims, have died in the course of the ongoing yatra. Besides, 15 pilgrims have been killed within the flash floods on the Amarnath cave shrine on July 1.

900 devotees go away for Buddha Amarnath Shrine

Meanwhile, amid tight safety, one other batch of over 900 pilgrims on Saturday left for Buddha Amarnath shrine in Poonch district’s Mandi space from the bottom camp in Jammu. The Buddha Amarnath Yatra resumed on Friday after a niche of two years as a result of Covid pandemic.