Chadi Mubarak reaches Holy Cave, Amarnath Yatra ends peacefully
Srinagar: Chadi Mubarak (the holy mace) reached the Cave shrine of Amarnath on Thursday marking the formal end of 43-day long Amarnath Yatra.
Officials said that the annual Amarnath Yatra which had remained suspended for two years due to Covid-19 pandemic was allowed this year and the yatra ended peacefully on Thursday.
They said that Chadi Mubarak reached the Holy cave on Thursday for final pooja, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan, making the formal end of Annual Amarnath Yatra 2022.
Officials said that government was expecting that around 6-8 lakh pilgrims will visit Kashmir for Yatra this year, however, 3.04 lakh pilgrims visited holy cave.
Official data suggests that this year even though 398611 registrations were done but only 304439 pilgrims had Darshan of the cave while 71 casualties were reported during the more than a month long pilgrimage.
They further added that around 71 pilgrims died this year during pilgrimage including the 15 pilgrims who died due to flash floods triggered by cloudburst on July 08 while rest died due to cardiac arrest and other ailments.
Moreover, around 25 pilgrims were injured in a road accident in Qazigund area on National Highway on July 18.
They said that group of sages led by custodian of the holy mace Mahant Dipendra Giri carrying Chadi Mubarak, holy mace of lord Shiva reached the the Amarnath cave on Thursday.
The 145 kilometre Chadi Mubarak Yatra starts from Dashnami Akhara in Srinagar and during the yatra route, sages perform hawans at Pampore, Bijbehara, Anantnag, Mattan, Aishmuqam and finally at Pahalgam where the procession takes rest for two days before proceeding to Amarnath holy cave.
They said the sages along with Chadi Mubarak usually spend two nights at Pahalgam while one at Chandanwari, one at Sheshnag and one at Panchtarani before reaching the Amarnath cave.
They said that amid the threat of terror attacks, the government had taken several steps to avert any untoward incident.
Moreover, health department had kept oxygen booths and health facilities available after every two kilometres on both routes of the Amarnath Cave, the officials said. (KNO)
KV News
