With the beginning of Navratras, heavy rush is being witnessed to holy cave shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi ji as about 50,000 pilgrims reached Katra town, base camp of the shrine today. Only 32,000 of them were allowed to proceed to Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan while 18,000 others were kept in waiting and will be allowed to go ahead during early hours of tomorrow morning.
For the first time in history of the shrine, the pilgrimage has crossed six million mark in the middle of September brightening the prospectus of the yatra touching eight million mark this year.
Pilgrimage this year till last evening had reached 60.52 lakh as compared to 49.17 lakh during the corresponding period last year, Additional CEO Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB), Dr Mandeep K Bhandari said.
The yatra was up by 11.35 lakh.
The highest ever yatra to the holy cave shrine was recorded in 2007 when 74.17 lakh pilgrims had paid their obeisance to the Goddess Vaishno Devi. The yatra had come down to about 67 lakh in 2008 mainly due to two month long agitation of Amarnath land row during July and August.
With yatra crossing six million mark in the middle of September, authorities in the SMVDSB were confident that the pilgrimage would reach eight million milestone this year, if all goes well in rest of the year.
In 2007 when the highest ever yatra of 74.17 lakh was recorded, the six million mark was crossed in October.
During first 19 days of this month, 4.03 lakh pilgrims have visited the shrine while the number during same days of this month last year was 2.23 lakh.
Dr Bhandari said over 50,000 pilgrims reached base camp of Katra today. Authorities stopped registration of pilgrims at about 5 pm after 32,000 pilgrims had left for the shrine. About 18,000 yatris were waiting for their turn to get registration slip to visit the shrine early tomorrow morning.
On first Navratra yesterday, 32,500 pilgrims paid obeisance to the Goddess.
A lone queue of pilgrims was witnessed for registration outside the SMVDSB centre in Katra town. Police have made tight security arrangements for the pilgrims at Katra as well as 13 km Katra-Bhawan track but had tough time in managing a huge influx of yatris. Police parties led by SSP Reasi Anand Jain, SP Katra Ashok Sharma, SDPO Katra Jugal Sharma and SHO Varinder Gupta were stationed at different points to maintain security arrangements.
Pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi shrine had gone up by 3.20 lakh in August and 3.79 lakh in July this year as compared to last year.
In the month of July 9.09 lakh yatris visited the holy cave shrine, averaging about 30,000 per day while in July last year only 5.31 lakh pilgrims had come to the Bhawan.
In January this year, 4.14 lakh pilgrims had visited Mata Vaishno Devi shrine as compared to 3.40 lakh last year while the number of yatris in February was 2.97 lakh, up from 2.25 lakh the previous year. In March, 6.73 lakh yatris had darshan of natural pindies of the Goddess, the number being 6.18 lakh last year.
In April, the number of pilgrims stood at 6.99 lakh from 6.23 lakh last year. However, it was in May when the number of yatris came down to 7.25 lakh this year from 9.65 lakh last year. In June as well the yatra was down to 10.13 lakh as compared to 11.18 lakh last year.
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