SRINAGAR: Despite rain Yatra was progressing smoothly on Friday to the holy marnath cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, where so far about 2.50 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance since the commencement of the 60-day-long pilgrimage from June 28 from shortest Baltal and traditional Pahalgam tracks.
However, helicopter service from Baltal and Pahalgam helipads to holy cave was disrupted today due to poor visibility as the sky was cloudy and there was light rain also.
About 1,000 pilgrims, who had night halt at camps adjacent to cave shrine, had ‘darshan’ of the self made Ice Shivlingam since early this morning. On Thursday, 2,553 pilgrims had ‘darshan’ at the cave shrine till late in the night. With this, a total of about 2.50 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the cave. Majority of the yatris had left for their homes.
A fresh batch of pilgrims left Baltal base camp for the holy cave shrine early this morning despite cloudy weather and intermittent rain, official sources said.
They said the yatris started their foot journey towards the cave shrine early this morning. The pilgrims after covering the 14-km-long hilly track are expected to reach the holy cave in the afternoon to pay obeisance.
Similarly, they said, pilgrims who had night halt at cave shrine after darshan, have also started their return journey towards Baltal base camp. However, helicopter service has been suspended due to poor visibility, they said adding the service will be resumed once the visibility improves.
Meanwhile, fresh batch of pilgrims, including women and sadhus, left Nunwan Pahalgam base camp base camp for first halting station at Chandanwari on the traditional track.
However, majority of the pilgrims will continue their journey towards the next halting station, they said. The yatris who had night halt at Chandanwari also left for next station early this morning.
However, helicopter service was disrupted from both Baltal and Pahalgam due to poor visibility at cave shrine,where there was rain also, they said.
(AGENCIES)
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