915 pilgrims leave Jammu base camp for Amarnath cave shrine

After a one-day break, a fresh batch of 915 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here for Kashmir on Saturday to undertake the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, officials said.

The pilgrims left in a convoy of 33 vehicles between 3:30 am and 3:45 am amid tight security, they said.

While 675 pilgrims, including 97 women, 25 sadhus and three sadhvis, are headed to the Pahalgam base camp in Anantnag district, 240 devotees are on their way to the Baltal base camp in Ganderbal district, they said.

So far, over 4.31 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine of Amarnath since the commencement of the annual 62-day yatra from the twin tracks -- the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam route and the shorter 14-km Baltal route -- on July 1, according to the officials.

No yatri convoy left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp on Friday after the authorities decided to run the yatra alternatively from Jammu and Kashmir in view of a sharp decline in the number of pilgrim arrivals.

The decline started with the melting of the naturally formed ice shivling at the cave shrine on July 23.

The yatra will conclude on August 31, coinciding with the festival of Raksha Bandhan.