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| Record At Trikuta Hills | | Sagar of Meerut 7417620th pilgrim of 2009at Vaishno Devi shrine; highest mark | | Early Times Report
Katra, Nov 12: History was today created at the darbar of Mata Vaishno Devi with the annual pilgrimage crossing the highest ever mark to set a new record.
First time since the formation of Shri Mata Vishno Devi Shrine Board in 1986, the annual pilgrimage today crossed highest mark surpassing the earlier record set in the year 2007 when 7417619 pilgrims had visited the most revered shrine in Trikuta hills. “Sagar Choudhary of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, along with family, was today a special guest with us when he became the 7417620th pilgrim of the current year”, said Dr Mandeep K Bhandari, the Additional Chief Executive Officer of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.
“It is always a matter of thrill with satisfaction when pilgrimage is seen going hugely upward”, said Dr Bhandari. When asked about the infrastructure, security and ecological concerns to cater to this huge rush, he said, “upgradation on matching infrastructure, measures for security, safety and comfort of pilgrims is a continuous ongoing process”. He informed that recently some new infrastructure has come up and many ambitious projects at the base camp as well as Bhawan are underway at fast pace.
Bhandari told Early Times that 67.66 lakh yatris visited Mata Vaishno Devi shrine during 2008 while was a significant decline over the highest ever previous figure of 74.14 lakh pilgrims in 2007 –the record which was broken today. A decline of 6.55 lakh in annual pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi over the previous year in 2008 could have been due to the two-month long agitation.
With highest ever record of 2007 broken on this day (ie November 12) there is possibility of 2009’s total annual pilgrimage going upto 85 lakh mark. On a daily average more than 23700 pilgrims have visited the revered cave shrine and with this pace continuing there is possibility of 11 lakh more pilgrims visiting during the remaining days of November and December. There is always a unprecedented huge rush on the new year eve which may take the total annual figure much higher.
It may be mentioned here that upon formation of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board in 1986 the total annual pilgrimage that year was around 13.9 lakhs and there was not much improvement till the 1990s when it started touching heights. 21 lakh pilgrims visited the shrine in 1990 and the figure was almost doubled to 40.11 lakhs in 1995; it was 52.17 lakhs in 2000 and 62.51 lakhs in 2005. The pilgrimage number went up to 69.50 lakhs in 2006, 74.17 lakhs in 2007 but declined to 67 lakhs in 2008. “Today’s record of 7417619 is a history in itself”, said Dr Bhandari.
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