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Char Dham yatra pilgrim influx crosses 2 million mark: Officials
Although frequent inclement weather resulting in fresh spells of snow and rain has hampered the Yatra this year, especially at Kedarnath and Yamunotri shrines, there has been no let up in the number of pilgrims
The number of pilgrims who have visited the Char Dham Yatra during this season has crossed 20 lakhs with Kedarnath Dham reporting the maximum rush with 7.13 lakh, Uttarakhand tourism department officials said on Sunday.
Over 40 lakh pilgrims have registered for the Char Dham Yatra so far forcing the government to stop the online registration for the pilgrimage to Kedarnath Dham till June 15 for better crowd management.
According to tourism department officials, 20.74 lakh pilgrims have visited Char Dham till Saturday evening, out of which 364,420 visited Yamunotri, 394,229 visited Gangotri, 580,185 visited Badrinath, 22,691 visited Hemkund Sahib and 713,049 visited Kedarnath Dham.
On Saturday, 11,989 visited Yamunotri, 8,591 visited Gangotri, 19,796 visited Badrinath, 2,569 visited Hemkund Sahib and 22,023 visited Kedarnath, taking the tally for the day to 64,968.
The upcoming number for registrations for the period from June 4 to 8 has reached 41,206 for Yamunotri, 49,599 for Gangotri, 96,804 for Kedarnath,95,510 for Badrinath and 10,115 for Hemkund Sahib shrine.
The pilgrims are opting for the Char Dham packages being run by the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), a subsidiary of the state tourism department, which has a fleet of 11 buses of its own and more than 80 tourist bungalows on the Char Dham route, as it is easy to book with over 11 public relations offices across the country, said GMVN officials.
SPS Rawat, AGM, Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam, Rishikesh, said, “ Last year was a bumper year for GMVN with the earnings crossing ₹20 crore as the yatra had started after three years of Covid-19 period. The response this year is not at that scale but is picking up each day with over 111 packages sold so far.”
“We provide nominal accommodation to the package holders at our 80 properties on the Char Dham route and the booking can be done easily from the 11 public relations centres across major cities in the country,” he said.
Although frequent inclement weather resulting in fresh spells of snow and rain has hampered the Yatra this year, especially at Kedarnath and Yamunotri shrines, there has been no let up in the number of pilgrims and the government officials expect that the number will rise further with the summer holiday season picking up in coming days.
Anand Shukla, temple priest and member of Kedar Sabha said, “The weather was clear On Sunday before noon, but with the Sun setting the Kedarnath shrine experienced a fresh spell of hail. If it continues for the next few hours, a spell of snow is likely to occur by late night.”
Amrit Sengar, a pilgrim, from Rajashtan’s Kota, at Kedarnath said, “We had to change our plans last week due to the inclement weather and are fortunate to have a darshan of the lord Kedar on Sunday morning although the queue was long to the shrine.”
The state government in the wake of frequent inclement weather has deployed over 2,000 police personnel along with 170 personnel from the state disaster response force (SDRF), out of which 70 are deployed on the Kedarnath route to ensure safe and secure Char Dham yatra, said officials from SDRF and police department.
Manikant Mishra, commandant SDRF said, “A team of over 170 SDRF personnel have been assisting the pilgrims and ensuring that they complete their yatra despite inclement weather on Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib yatra route, especially near Bhairav and Kuber glacier, which have witnessed minor avalanche in the past, especially near Lincholi Kedarnath Yatra route.”
“The SDRF teams have been at the forefront to clear the snow from the yatra route using various tools including spades, and sometimes they even picked up the pilgrims on their backs and brought them to safe areas so that they could complete their yatra,” he added.
This year, SDRF teams have rescued over 86 sick or injured pilgrims by assisting them to the nearest medical units for treatment and the pilgrims suffering from breathlessness and hyperthermia have been given portable Oxygen cylinders and concentrators from time to time as per requirement, said the SDRF officials.
