Srinagar: With 12,000 pilgrims being allowed to move towards the Amarnath cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday morning, more than 100,000 people have performed the pilgrimage in seven days, an official said.
"More than one lakh yatris have performed the yatra during the last seven days. Today, over 6,000 pilgrims moved towards the cave shrine from the north Kashmir Baltal base camp while an equal number was allowed to move from the south Kashmir Pahalgam base camp," said a government official here.
"The weather has improved along both the yatra treks and this will facilitate clearing of the stranded pilgrims at the base camps," he said.
This year's pilgrimage to the 13,500 ft high cave shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva has been posing serious challenges of management and regulation to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
"The huge rush of unregistered devotees has become a major challenge for us. It has now been decided to give on-the-spot registration to the pilgrims who are arriving here without any prior information," said an SASB official at Baltal.
The pilgrimage, which began June 29, resumed Monday after being halted for a day due to bad weather.
IANS
First Published: Tuesday, July 05, 2011, 11:51