Vaishno Devi yatra breaks 9 yrs old record, huge rush in temples

Over 91 lakh pilgrims visited the famous Mata Vaishno Devi temple in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir in 2022, the highest in the last nine years, a senior official of the shrine board said on Sunday.

Over 23,000 devotees offered prayers at the shrine located atop Trikuta hills on New Year’s Eve.
In a tweet, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board CEO Anshul Garg said, “91.25 lakh devotees paid obeisance at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in 2022, the highest number since the start of Online Individual Yatri registration in 2013. May Mata Rani continue to shower blessings of peace, happiness and prosperity upon all of us.”

According to shrine board data, 23,110 pilgrims offered prayers at the shrine on the last day of 2022.
In 2022, the highest footfall was recorded in June with more than 11.29 lakh pilgrims visiting the temple. At 3.61 lakh, February saw the lowest footfall last year.

In December, 5.67 lakh devotees visited the shrine.
Despite a stampede at the shrine on January 1 last year that left 12 pilgrims dead and 16 injured, over 4.38 lakh devotees visited the temple in the month.

More than 7.78 lakh pilgrims visited in March, over 9.02 lakh in April, over 9.86 lakh in May, over 9.07 lakh in July, over 8.77 lakh in August, over 8.28 lakh in September, over 7.51 lakh in October and over 6.01 lakh in November, according to the data.

Only 17 lakh pilgrims, the lowest in over three decades, visited the shrine in 2020 when it remained closed for five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pilgrim footfall at the shrine touched an all-time high of 1.04 crore in 2012.
The number of pilgrims visiting the shrine dropped from 93.24 lakh in 2013 to 78.03 lakh in 2014, 77.76 lakh in 2015 and 77.23 lakh in 2016. It increased to 81.78 lakh in 2017 and 85.87 lakh in 2018 before dropping again in 2019 to 79.40 lakh.

Following the first-ever stampede at the famous shrine, the shrine board in August introduced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) as part of various new projects sanctioned for the convenience of the pilgrims, better crowd management and tracking of the yatris along the 13-km track and the ‘Bhawan’ (sanctum sanctorum).

The official said the work on mega projects at Bhawan, including Durga Bhawan having provisions to accommodate 2,500 pilgrims on daily basis, and the Sky-walk, conceptualized by the shrine board to overcome the problem of multi-directional flow of yatra and a chaotic condition at Bhawan – are going on at full speed and are likely to be completed soon.

The New Year rush of pilgrims was professionally handled this time by the Shrine Board staff and security forces to ensure nothing untoward happens like last year’s stampede.

For crowd management the entire route, right from base camp Katra to Bhawan, have been divided into six sectors, where senior officers were deployed to regulate the pilgmans movement.

Disaster Management, Police and CRPF personnel along with the Enforcement Wing of the Shrine Board Administration will be deployed at every 50 meters on the one kilometer road from Manokamna Sthal to the under-construction Durga Bhavan.

Meanwhile, Army Chief General Manoj Pande on Sunday began the new year by paying a visit to troops posted along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

“On the occasion of NewYear2023, General Manoj Pande COAS visited troops deployed at various locations in High Altitude Area along the Line of Control in Kupwara Sector,” an Army spokesperson said in a tweet.
He said the chief of armed staff interacted with the troops and extended New Year wishes to all ranks and their families.