Amid unrest in Kashmir Valley, the annual Amaranth pilgrimage concluded on Thursday. Religious hymns were chanted by ascetics at the holy cave situated in south Kashmir Mountains to mark the colmination of the pilgrimage on Shravan Purnima. The day is regarded as the end of summer season and start of winter season in Kashmir Valley.
Top officials of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) that manages and regulates the annual pilgrimage took part in the concluding worship at the holy cave where an ice stalagmite resembling shivalingam forms and attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims.
This year, over 2.20 lakh yatris paid obeisance at the holy cave shrine that had begun on July 2. The pilgrims were trekking to the cave through Baltal and Pahalgam routes. This year’s pilgrimage was smooth for the initial six days only and encountered major hiccups after the situation in Kashmir worsened due to massive public protests in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani on July 8. The yatra was stopped for several days but resumed after the authorities made elaborate arrangements for the safety of pilgrims.
Governor NN Vohra, whi is the ex-officio chairman of the SASB expressed satisfaction over the incident-free conduct of this year’s yatra barring two road accidents which took place at Halmulla and near the Access Control Gate, Chandanwari.
The Governor expressed concern and sympathy over the loss of 22 lives of pilgrims, service providers and others in this year’s yatra, of whom 2 died due to accidents and 20 due to medical reasons. He stressed the need for identifying fresh and further measures which could possibly prevent loss of precious lives in the future yatras.
The Governor asked the CEO to immediately launch a full scale post-Yatra sanitation drive, fully involving the Pahalgam and Sonamarg Development Authorities, so that the entire Yatra area is effectively cleaned up in the next 5 days.
The Governor also directed the CEO to ensure complete cleaning up of all camp sites and to prepare a camp and route-wise action plan for Yatra 2017, keeping in view the experiences gained during this year’s pilgrimage. He stressed that route-wise arrangements of all aspects of the Yatra must be worked out well in advance, with particular focus on medicare, sanitation, cleanliness, water and power supply and other facilities and, side by side, ensuring effective protection of environment and ecology of the Yatra area.