Char Dham yatra pilgrim influx sees drop of nearly 8 lakh devotees
Hindustan TimesChar Dham yatra pilgrim influx witnessed a drop of nearly 8 lakh with 4.8 million pilgrims visiting Char Dham shrines since the yatra began on May 10, compared to last year when a record 5.6 million pilgrims visited the revered Himalayan shrines. Out of 48,11,279 pilgrims who visited Char Dham shrines, 14,35,341 visited Badrinath, as many as 1,83,722 visited Hemkund Sahib, 16,52,076 visited Kedarnath, around 8,15,273 visited Gangotri Dham and 7,14,755 visited Yamunotri Dham this year. “The less number of days available for Char Dham Yatra this year in comparison to last year is one of the main reason for the shortfall this year was the frequent landslides during monsoon period specially the disaster of 31 July where the whole Kedarnath route was blocked and several thousand pilgrims were stranded and had to be evacuated by the state government machinery which meant that from 1 to 10 August not a single pilgrim visited Kedarnath shrine and 500 less pilgrims visited the shrine between 11-29 August”, he said. “Due to late start of the yatra this year the unprecedented rush was witnessed especially on Gangotri and Yamunotri shrine routes which led to severe traffic jams due to limited infrastructure which could not cope with the unprecedented rush thus spreading a negative message dissuading the pilgrims from visiting the Char Dham shrines and we recommend that the state government should improve the infrastructure especially the roads so that such chaotic scenes are avoided next yatra season”, Puri said.