The 62-day pilgrimage is conducted from the twin base camps of Pahalgam’s Nunwan in Anantnag, south Kashmir, and Baltal camp in Ganderbal, central Kashmir.
The Amarnath yatra started on Sunday from the customary Pahalgam route in south Kashmir after being postponed for two days owing to bad weather.
However, owing to landslides and firing stones, the pilgrimage was stopped on the Baltal road in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal region for the third day in a row. Due to the torrential rains on Friday that led to landslides and shooting stones in various locations, the yatra was put on hold along both routes.
The 264-km Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the sole road connection linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, remained blocked for traffic owing to landslides; hence, no new batch of yatris were permitted to go from Jammu to the cave shrine in Kashmir, an official said. No pilgrim has travelled from Jammu’s Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas to the cave sanctuary.
According to estimates, hundreds of yatris are stuck at several base camps on their way to the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas.
According to the news agency ANI, which cited Karnataka government authorities, due to bad weather, at least 80 Karnataka residents were stuck in the Panchtarni, six kilometres from the sacred cave.
The 62-day pilgrimage is conducted from the twin base camps of Pahalgam’s Nunwan in Anantnag, south Kashmir, and Baltal camp in Ganderbal, central Kashmir. On August 31, which falls on Raksha Bandhan and Shravan Purnima, the yearly pilgrimage that began on July 1 will come to an end.
