JAMMU, July 26, 2013: On 29th day of annual 55 days long pilgrimage of Baba Amarnath ji, 3939 yatris today performed darshan inside the holy cave shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas.
With this today pilgrimage to Lord Shiva’s shrine has gone up to 3,20,797.
Yesterday, 4296 yatris had offered obeisance to Lord Shiva in the cave shrine after trekking from twin tracks of Nunwan in Pahalgam and Baltal.
“The pilgrimage was progressing smoothly. The weather was fine,” official reports said.
About 1600 pilgrims left Baltal and Nunwan in Pahalgam base camps for holy Amarnath cave shrine this morning.
Reports said about 750 pilgrims, including 144 women and four Sadhus, left Baltal base camp early today for the cave shrine from shorter track.
Similarly, about 850 yatris left Nunwan, Pahalgam base camp for Chandanwari, the last motorable halting station on the traditional route.
They included 143 women and 65 Sadhus, reports said, adding some of them will have night halt at Chandanwari while others will continue their journey to have night halt at Pissu Top.
The yatris who had night halt at different stations on traditional route also started their journey to the cave this morning.
Meanwhile, a fresh batch of 559 devotees left Jammu base camp for their onward journey to the cave shrine.
A convoy of 17 vehicles carrying the 29th batch of 559 devotees left the Yatri Niwas at Bhagwati Nagar at around 4 am today.
The batch including 427 men, 80 women and 2 children apart from 50 Sadhus reached twin base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal in the Valley tonight.
With today’s batch, a total of 48,274 pilgrims have left Jammu base camp for Amarnath so far in the official convoy. Majority of pilgrims have been reaching Nunwan (Pahalgam) and Baltal base camps directly.

Source: Daily Excelsior, DT. July 27, 2013.