STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The seventh batch of over 6,500 Amarnath Yatra pilgrims left Jammu in the early hours of Thursday for the twin base camps in Kashmir amid tight security, officials said.
The 62-day annual pilgrimage to the 3,888-metre-high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas commenced from the twin tracks of Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district on July 1.
17,202 Yatris paid obeisance, numbers swell to 84, 768
SRINAGAR: With 17202 yatries paying obeisance at the Shri Amarnathji Holy Cave on Thursday, the cumulative total of pilgrims reached to 84768 on the 7th day of yatra.
Among the pilgrims who visited Holy Cave were 12408 males, 4095 females, 490 children, 192 Sadhus and 17 Sadvis. The influx of yatries continue to surge with each passing day making it one of the most successful yatra in the country.
The entire yatra is being monitored from Integrated Command & Control Centre (ICCC) at HMT which has been put in use for Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra since 2022.
ICCC, HMT is being integrated with RFID to monitor Yatra remotely on real time basis. All departments monitor and send communication to their staff in field from here to cater to the requirements of yatries.
ICCC helps in effective management of operations in exceptional scenarios such as disaster mitigation using information and communication technologies.
An official at ICCC said that ICCC has been Integrated with RFID which is a pure data science and helps in effective crowd control management, traceability, avoidance of traffic jams and management besides ensures coordination among all stake holders on a real time basis.
The data analysis and simulation models are effective in disaster mitigation and preemptive actions, he added.
The officials said the pilgrim footfall at the shrine has crossed the 65,000 mark and the yatra is progressing smoothly, with devotees from across the country thronging the base camps to have a glimpse of the naturally formed ice shivling and offer their prayers. A total of 6,554 pilgrims — 5,053 male, 1,375 women, 101 seers and 25 children — left Bhagwati Nagar base camp here for the Valley in a convoy of 272 vehicles amid tight security arrangements in the early hours of Thursday, they said.
The officials said 3,864 pilgrims, headed for Pahalgam, left in a convoy of 141 vehicles for the Valley, while another convoy of 131 vehicles carrying 2,690 pilgrims left for the Baltal base camp at 3.30 am.
With this, a total of 36,823 pilgrims have left the Jammu base camp for the valley since June 30 when the first batch of pilgrims began the yatra, which was flagged off by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. The yatra is scheduled to conclude on August 31.
The administration has registered over 3,000 fresh pilgrims on tatkal yatra counters in Jammu for their onward journey to Amarnath, officials said.
Over 300 pilgrims, who were carrying fake permits, have also been given permits after fresh registration at on-the-spot counters in Jammu.
These pilgrims were duped by the travel agencies by providing them fake registration documents for their yatra. Three persons have been arrested in this connection so far, they said.