With four batches of Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrims stranded for days due to bad weather, the nodal agency for the Yatra has requested the Centre not to send any fresh batch until the backlog is cleared.
Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN), the nodal agency for the Yatra, wrote a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on July 20 asking it not to send any fresh batch before the stranded ones proceed for their onward journey, KMVN General Manager T S Martolia told PTI.
While the eighth batch of 58 pilgrims could not be airlifted from Pithoragarh's Naini-Saini airstrip to the Gunji base camp due to bad weather, the pilgrims of ninth, 10thand 11thbatches are waiting in KMVN's Tourist Rest Houses (TRH) at Chaukori, Almora and Bhimtal, Martolia said.
The eighth batch has been waiting for the past nine days in Pithoragarh to be airlifted to the Gunji base camp.
The main obstacle has been dense clouds beyond Chiyalekh valley on way to Gunji, he said.
Pilgrims of these batches can proceed for their onward journeys only after the weather clears, he said.
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Hence, KMVN has requested the MEA not to send the 12th and further batches for the time being so that pilgrims do not face any inconvenience, he said.
"Even if we arrange for lodging of all waiting batches, the management could be disturbed at the Gunji base camp as we have to send batches systematically through the Lipulekh pass to be handed over to the Chinese authorities," the KMVN official said.
It is for a second time that pilgrims have got stranded in Pithoragarh due to bad weather this year.
The seventh batch also had to wait for over seven days till July 13 due to non-lifting of pilgrims from the Naini-Saini airstrip.
According to district administration, the pilgrims had reached the airstrip at 8 am to be lifted to Gunji but were disappointed after a helicopter that was supposed to leave for Gunji returned after some time citing cloudy weather.
"The pilgrims will have to stay at Tourist Rest Houses of KMVN on ninth day to try again to reach Gunji the next day," said Dinesh Gururani, the in-charge of TRH.
Meanwhile, fifth and sixth batch pilgrims have returned from Tibet after completing their Yatra and are waiting for helicopters at Gunji to be airlifted to Pithoragarh. But they are also in a tight spot due to bad weather in Chiyalekh.
"Since the past nine days, we reach helipad at 5 am and wait for the helicopter that would take us to Pithoragarh. But by the end of the day, we are told that the chopper will not be coming today, said Raju Vyas, a pilgrim of the sixth batch from Jodhpur.