Kedarnath Yatra was on Monday suspended temporarily and pilgrims were stopped at Sonprayag and Gaurikund as the weather department issued heavy rain alert for Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts.
Kedarnath Yatra was suspended last week due to landslide
Last week, the pilgrimage to Kedarnath was also suspended temporarily following a landslide triggered by rains at Munkatiya near Sonprayag en route to the Himalayan temple.
The road has been completely blocked by the landslide debris and stones at Munkatiya sliding zone, prompting the administration to stop the yatra temporarily, police said.
Some pilgrims returning from Gaurikund were trapped in the sliding zone but were rescued by State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel and brought safely to Sonprayag, they said.
The yatra to Kedarnath has been stopped for the time being as a precautionary measure.
8,600 pilgrims leave for Amarnath Yatra
In another development, more than 8,600 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu early on Monday to join the annual Amarnath pilgrimage in the Himalayas, officials said.
More than 70,000 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the holy cave shrine located at a height of 3,880 metres since the start of the 38-day yatra, which commenced from the twin tracks of Pahalgam in the Anantnag district and Baltal in the Ganderbal district on July 3.
The sixth batch of 8,605 pilgrims — 6,486 men, 1,826 women, 42 children, and 251 sadhus and sadhvis — left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here in 372 vehicles for the twin base camps in Kashmir amid tight security arrangements at 3.30 am and 4.25 am, the officials said.
The first pilgrim convoy, carrying 3,486 pilgrims in 166 vehicles, left for the shorter but steeper 14-km Baltal route in the Ganderbal district, followed by the second convoy of 5,119 pilgrims in 206 vehicles who are undertaking the yatra from the 48-km traditional Pahalgam route in the Anantnag district, they said.
This was the largest batch of pilgrims since Wednesday, when Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the yatra in Jammu on July 2. With this, a total of 40,361 pilgrims have left the Jammu base camp for the valley.
There is a huge rush at the counters for on-the-spot registration, with authorities increasing the number of counters as well as the daily quota to ease the rush.
