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| 30,000 trees to be planted on 13-km Vaishno Devi track | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 20: With environmental degradation becoming a major concern for the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, it has decided to plant nearly 30,000 trees along the 13 km long track leading to the cave shrine.
According to the officials the trees will be planted along the track to prevent the soil erosion and maintain the atheistic look of the shrine which is visited by nearly 80 lakh pilgrims every year from across the world.
Recently in a major green initiative, the shrine Board had commissioned two solar power plants at the temple to supply electricity and slowly move towards renewable sources of energy.
“33,000 plants of different species and 4000 flowering plants are being planted during the monsoon season to beautify the tracks leading to the shrine board”, said a senior officer from Shrine Board.
Official sources said that due to the increase in the number of pilgrims visiting the hill shrine, there has been huge impact on the surrounding environment which had worried the environmentalists. Though measures have been taken to provide eco-friendly services, but at times board had to cut the trees to create infrastructure facilities.
Sources said that the other significant initiatives launched by the shrine board this year is that it is providing comprehensive disaster management training to the board's employees so that they can quickly provide first aid to the affected people in case of any emergency.
The CEO said two other projects - a biogas plant of four tonnes per day capacity and a solar emergency lighting system - are also being planned on a time-bound basis.
It is pertinent to mention here that with number of pilgrims likely to cross one crore mark by the end of this year, Shrine Board had decided to carry out 'Time-Motion' study to ensure proper management of the people on 13 km mountainous track.
The study is being conducted by Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad to carry out the study and suggest scientific ways to reduce the waiting time inside the cave shrine nestled in the Trikuta hills.
During the peak pilgrimage period between May and September the daily inflow of the pilgrims sometimes reach nearly 50,000 a diffcult the Shrine board which had to sometimes stop the yatra for more than 24 hours to stabling the rush. Last year about more than 75 lakh people had darshan of the natural Pindis, in the cave shrine.
Under a new master plan a new 7-km track from Ban Ganga at the cost of one crore is also being constructed to ease pressure on existing two routes to reach Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine. The new track will start from Banganga through Tarakot Mountains to Himkot and will meet the existing track at Ardhkumari.
Shrine received about 68 lakh pilgrims in 2008. In 2007, this figure was 74.17 lakh while in 2006, the yatra stood at 69.50 lakh. In 2009 it was more than 75 lakh.
Pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi was just 13.95 lakh in 1986 when Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDB) had taken over management of the cave shrine. Since then, it has been going up barring slight decline in some years. Till 1998 there was only one track and in 2000 a new approach road was constructed by the Board.
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