Baltal, 01 July (Hindustan Times). The first batch of Amarnath Yatris on Saturday left the base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam in the Kashmir Valley amid tight security. The holy Amarnath cave is situated between the peaks of the Himalayas at an altitude of 3880 meters above sea level. This party resounded the Kashmir valley with the announcement of Bam Bam Bhole and Har Har Mahadev. Amarnath pilgrims include men, women, sadhus, old and young.
Dr. Raghav Langer, Secretary, Planning Development and Monitoring Department from Baltal base camp flagged off the first batch of pilgrims in the presence of DC Ganderbal and SSP Ganderbal, Camp Director Baltal Domel etc. From the Anantnag side, the nodal officer for the yatra and Revenue Secretary Dr Piyush Singla along with Deputy Commissioner Anantnag SF Hamid flagged off the batch before the Nunwan base camp at Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
The batch that left for the Amarnath cave from the Kashmir Valley was flagged off by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha from Jammu on Friday. Meanwhile, the second batch of over 4,400 pilgrims left on Saturday from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu. The pilgrims left the base camp in a convoy of 188 vehicles in the morning. With this, the number of pilgrims leaving for the Amarnath cave shrine from the Jammu base camp has gone up to 7,904, officials said.
The pilgrims are very excited about the arrangements made on the Yatra route in the Kashmir Valley. Local citizens are also extending full support to the passengers. Most of the pilgrims expressed happiness over the arrangements made by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and the Jammu and Kashmir UT Administration.
It is noteworthy that the Baltal route is the shortest in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir. It takes a few days for the pilgrims to reach the cave from the Pahalgam base camp. Pilgrims using the Baltal route return to the base camp after darshan on the same day.
