Amarnath Yatra Pilgrimage will resume soon, says LG; rescue operations speeded up

Asserting that the restoration work is going on full swing, the Lieutenant Governor, Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha said that the pilgrimage will resume at the earliest. Simultaneously, the concerned authorities have speeded up rescue operations to trace missing pilgrims after the recent flash floods near cave shrine.

“Work on restoration of yatra route is going on in full swing and we are sure that Amarnath pilgrimage will resume very soon,” Sinha told reporters after visiting Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

He said that all operations have been completed except the one where some debris was still lying and that too is being cleared. “I hope restoration work will be completed by today only. After completion of the work safety check will be done, following which yatra will be resumed,” the L-G said.

He also said that he personally met the yatris and got positive feedback from them. “We are making arrangements for yatris and will try to make better arrangements for them,” Sinha added.

At least 15,000 pilgrims have been shifted to the lower base camp after Friday’s incident, while more than 40 people are still missing, officials said.

The pilgrimage has been suspended from Jammu due to inclement weather conditions and no fresh batch was allowed to proceed from there to the base camps of the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine.

To speed up rescue operation, the Indian Air Force (IAF) moved around 8.5 tons of sophisticated equipment, relief material along with a contingent of NDRF teams and canines from Srinagar to the cave to speed up the rescue operation.

The official privy with the development said that IAD joined the operation after 2.00 pm due to bad weather conditions, which is not favorable for flying over the high altitude.

“Two Mi-17 helicopters and four Cheetal helicopters launched for carrying relief materials and equipment to the cave area,” said PRO (Defence), Srinagar, Colonel Emron Musavi.

As per officials, about 15,000 pilgrims have been rescued and shifted to Panjtarni base for their onward journey but still over 40 persons are said to be missing after the unfortunate incident.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), however denied cloudburst at Amarnath Shrine and attributed deaths and destruction to a highly localized rain. At least 16 people have lost their lives and 60 have been injured.

Though the movements of devotees have been halted ahead of base camps, the rescue operation in Amarnath is continuously going on day and night at Amarnath cave since Friday evening.

The spokesperson further added that in total 43 sorties IAF choppers carried more than 8.5 ton load and evacuated 34 casualties from the accident affected site.

“NDRF team and personnel including 06 canines transported from Srinagar to Holy Cave to speed up the rescue operation,” Col Emron added.

Moreover, Army, NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, CRP, BSF, J&K police and other agencies with trained dog squads have been conducting extensive searches to find the traces of missing people from the last two days.

The defence spokesperson said that additional portable through-wall radar, earth-moving equipment being inducted in the area to trace the missing persons.

“Men from the Engineer Regiment of Indian Army pulled the Excavator weighing around 3 tons towards the Amarnath cave and speed up search for any missing persons under the derbies,” the spokesperson said.

He further said that yesterday, the forces tried to airlift this machine but faced difficulties.

The spokesperson further added that the latest technology equipment also deployed for search.

“Xaver 4000 radar was inducted and operational today to find survivors or casualties under the debris. The effort of rescue is being coordinated by the Kilo Force of the Chinar Corps,” the spokesperson said, adding “Radars and Xaver 4000 amplifying the task of search-and-rescue dogs to search any human being under the debris.”

The 43-day annual Yatra began on June 30, from the twin base camps of Nunwan and Baltal camp in Ganderbal district.

In the first nine-days of the yatra over one lakh pilgrims offered their prayers at the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Lord Shiva in the upper reaches of the south Himalayas.

This year the pilgrimage was expected to see higher than usual attendance of pilgrims as it resumed after a gap of three years. The annual yatra was canceled in 2020 as well as 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019 it was cut short following intelligence inputs of terror threats ahead of the Centre scrapping Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

The yatra to the holy cave shrine will culminate, as per the tradition, on the day of Raksha Bandhan, on August 11.