Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 1: After a slump during past couple of years, pilgrimage to holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi ji has once again started picking up this year with an increase of about 4.35 lakh over the corresponding period of first five months of last year.
The yatra is going up further with 30,000 to 40,000 pilgrims visiting the holy cave shrine, located between Trikuta Hills at the height of 5200 feet from sea level, daily these days for darshan of natural pindies of Goddess Vaishno Devi ji.
Official sources told the Excelsior that during first five months of this year i.e. up to May 31, 2016, 31.16 lakh pilgrims offered obeisance at Mata Vaishno Devi ji shrine while the number of yatris during first five months of last year (2015) was 26.81 lakh. An increase of 4.35 lakh has been recorded in the pilgrimage during current year so far as against the similar period of last year.
The increase of 4.35 lakh was quite significant in view of steep decline in the yatra during past two years of 2014 and 2015 when the yatra had closed below eight million after surpassing 10 million during 2011 and 2012.
“The yatra to Mata Vaishno Devi ji shrine is further picking up with 30,000 to 40,000 pilgrims reaching daily at Katra, the base camp of the shrine, for their onward journey to the shrine to pay obeisance to the Goddess,” sources said, adding that on weekends, the number of arrival of the pilgrims was touching 40,000 or even above while on others days, it was around 30,000.
If the present trend was maintained, the yatra would go up considerably as compared to the last year, they said.
During just ended month of May, the yatra fell short by just about 18,000 from touching 10 lakh. As many as 9,81,809 pilgrims had darshan of Mata Vaishno Devi ji in May this year as against 8,17, 029 in the same month last year.
Significantly, all first five months of this year have recorded increase in pilgrimage in 2016 as compared to the previous year.
During the month of April this year, 7,56,851 pilgrims visited Mata Vaishno Devi shrine while the number during last year for corresponding month was 5,97,472. Similarly, in March, 6,48,935 yatris paid obeisance at the holy cave shrine as against 6,17,785 of last year.
The number of yatris during February this year stood at 2,96,746 as against 2,89,460 in the last year. In January this year, the yatra stood at 4,32,246 as against 3,59,453 of last year.
About 7.7 million pilgrims had visited the holy cave shrine during 2015 recording a decline of 26,589 over 2014 and 15.47 lakh over 2013.
Since 2011 and 2012 when the yatra to Mata Vaishno Devi had crossed one crore mark, it has maintained the declining trend. While 1.04 crores people had visited the Bhawan in 2012, the number was 1.01 crore in 2011.
About 77,76,604 yatris had paid obeisance to natural pindies of Goddess Vaishno Devi during 2015 as against 78,03,193 in 2014 and 93,23,647 in 2013.
Pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi was just 13.95 lakh in 1986 when the SMVDSB had taken over affairs of the shrine. Since then, the yatra continued to go up every year creating new records but it fell down during past three years of 2013, 2014 and 2015 due to variety of natural reasons including Kedarnath ji tragedy in 2013 followed by tensions on the International Border in 2013 and 2014 and September 2014 flood.
It was for the first time in 1991 that the pilgrimage had crossed 3 million (31.15 lakh). The 4 million mark was reached in 1996 while the yatra reached 50 lakh in 2000 and 60 lakh in 2004. It was in 2007 that the yatra stood at 74.17 lakh.
The pilgrimage came down to 67.92 lakh in 2008 due to two months long Amarnath land agitation but again went up to 82 lakh in 2009 and reached 87.2 lakh in 2010. It was for the first time in 2011 that the yatra crossed 10 million mark and stood at 1.01 crore.
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