Jammu: Over 500 more Yatris on Saturday left here for the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said.
A total of 597 Yatris of the 30th batch left base camp Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in the city in a convoy of 30 vehicles amid heavy CRPF security in the morning, they said.
The officials said 155 Yatris heading for Baltal base camp were the first to leave in eight vehicles, followed by the second convoy of 22 vehicles carrying 442 Yatris for the Pahalgam base camp of the annual Yatra.
The number of Yatris visiting the cave shrine has drastically fallen in the past three days mostly due to bad weather conditions, they said, adding Saturday’s was the lowest batch of Yatris in past one week.
While 3,862 Yatris left for the cave shrine from Jammu on Monday, 2,189, 1,147, 1,602 and 835 Yatris and left for the Yatra from here on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, respectively, the officials said.
The annual 43-day Amarnath Yatra commenced from the twin base camps — traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag and 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal — on June 30.
Over 2.7 lakh Yatris have so far offered prayers at the cave shrine, housing the naturally formed ice-shivlingam, the officials said.
A total of 1,41,950 Yatris have left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for the Valley since June 29, the day the first batch of Yatris was flagged off by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha.
