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| Vaishno Devi yatra picks up slowly, around 10,000 arriving daily | | Navratra festival likely to a low key affair | | Sandeep Bhat
Jammu, Sept 20 : The recent floods in Jammu and Kashmir have not only changed the lives of local people but also created a fear in the minds and hearts of pilgrims and tourists whose number has come down drastically in both Jammu and Kashmir regions. There are a number of cases regarding cancellation of bookings in both the regions but Kashmir continues to be the worst sufferer. Due to landslides and floods in Jammu region, the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage was halted for four days as a result of which the number of pilgrims visiting the cave shrine decreased.
Talking to Early Times, M K Bhandari, CEO, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, said that due to recent floods, there was considerable drop in number of yatris and if we compare it with last year, the number is very low and there are certain cancellations also. The pilgrims were scared of floods and landslides and that is one of the reason for decline in their number. He said the pilgrimage was slowly increasing and hoped it would increase more during coming navratras. Due to the death and destruction caused by rains and floods, we have decided to celebrate navratra festival on very low note and there will be no celebrations this year, he added. It will be a low key affair and only Bhagwat katha will be recited. He said that SMVDSB has cleared all the tracks right from Ban Ganga to holy cave shrine and repaired all tracks which were damaged due to landslides. There is absolutely no problem in pursuing the yatra during navratras and all kinds of facilities including battery cars, helicopter service, horses and others are available, he added. Around 10,000 yatris are arriving daily at the base camp Katra, he said and hoped that their number would increase in the coming navratras despite adverse conditions and tragedy that struck the state of Jammu and Kashmir. |
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