Srinagar: With 21,401 Amarnath pilgrims having ‘darshan’ Saturday, the total count of pilgrims surpassed the two lakh mark in the first half of the month of July this year.
In aggregate, 2,084,15 devotees undertook pilgrimage during the ongoing Amarnath Yatra so far, officials said.
They said 15,510 males, 5,034 females, 617 children, 238 Sadhus, and two Sadhvis performed darshan on Saturday.
Among the pilgrims was a Ukrainian woman who shared her views about pilgrimage and appreciated smooth and organized arrangements besides praising passionate support from people, an official press release said.
Meanwhile, early in the morning today, a fresh batch of over 7,000 pilgrims left Jammu city for the twin base camps in the Valley to join the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, officials said.
The 62-day annual pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in the south Kashmir Himalayas commenced from the twin tracks — the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam route in Anantnag and the shorter 14-km Baltal route in the Ganderbal — on July 1.
The officials said the 13th batch of 7,392 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in a convoy of 272 vehicles amid tight security.
While 4,024 pilgrims left for Pahalgam in a convoy of 146 vehicles, 3,368 devotees left for Baltal in 126 vehicles around 4 am, they said.
With this, a total of 80,181 pilgrims have left the Jammu base camp for the Valley since June 30.
Pilgrims from across the country undertake the Amarnath Yatra to pay obeisance at the holy cave shrine that houses a naturally formed ice Shivlingam.
The pilgrims are being provided all the facilities by the departments concerned round the clock, they said.
