Smallest batch of 68 pilgrims leave Jammu for Amarnath cave

The 40th batch of 68 pilgrims -- the smallest so far -- today left the base camp here for the 3,880-metre high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, the police said.

The pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar Base Camp in the early hours here under tight security arrangements, a police official said.

He said the pilgrims are scheduled to reach the twin base camps of Baltal in Ganderbal district and Nunwan-Pahalgam in Anantnag district later in the day.

While 55 of the pilgrims including six women are performing the yatra from the shortest 12-km Baltal route, the rest of the pilgrims including four women have opted for the 36-km traditional Pahalgam route, the official said.

The 60-day annual yatra commenced from the twin tracks on June 28 and is scheduled to conclude on August 26 coinciding with 'Raksha Bandhan' festival.

Till last evening, a total of 2,77,215 pilgrims had paid their obeisance at the cave shrine which houses the naturally formed ice-shivlingam.

However, the number of pilgrims undertaking the yatra has marked a sharp dip over the past fortnight owing to the early melting of the naturally formed ice-shivlingam at the sanctum sanctorum.

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