The pilgrimage to Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines is being disrupted intermittently due to blockages on the routes leading to these shrines.
The failure of the authorities to ensure timely treatment of the danger zones activated on the national highways to these shrines during last year's disaster is resulting in landslides at several places.
The recurring road blockages are causing much inconvenience to both the locals and the pilgrims.
This has also affected the numbers of devotees visiting the shrines this year. This year, at this time mostly Kanwadias are reaching Gangotri to fill pitchers with water of the Bhagirathi here, while the number of pilgrims Yamunotri is considerably sparse.
Due to the rains being experienced here for the past many days, landslides occurring at various places have led to frequent blockage of the national highway to Gangotri especially at Sukki, Netala, Helgu and Raturisera.
Due to the road blockages, it is taking the pilgrims two days to Gangotri instead of one. On Thursday, debris landing on the highway forced the pilgrims to wait for many hours for the road to be cleared even as the landslide prone area at Badia and Syanachatti remained active on the route to Yamunotri. Though theBorder Roads Organisation and Public Works Department have placed JCBs at such sites, the pilgrims and local travelers are frequently forced to wait for many hours at a time for the blockages to be cleared.
Due to this reason, even during the ongoing Kanwad pilgrimage, only 1000 Kanwadias reached Gangotri last week while 500 pilgrims visited Yamunotri. However, before the June 2013 disaster, thousands of pilgrims used to visit these shrines during
this period.