As many as 5000 yatris left from Baltal and Nunwan base camps towards the Amarnath cave shrine on the second day of the annual pilgrimage today, an official said.
By Monday evening, 8403 pilgrims had paid obeisance at thecave housing the ice lingam.
More than 1.5 lakh pilgrims from across the country have sofar registered for the 46-day-long yatra, which takes place from the 36-kmPahalgam track in Anantnag district and 14-km Baltal route in Ganderbaldistrict.
Meanwhile, the third batch of 4,823 Amarnath pilgrims leftfrom Jammu base camp on Tuesday for the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine.
The third batch comprising 4,823 pilgrims– including 3,759males, 936 females and 128 sadhus and sadhvis– left in a fleet of 223 vehiclesfrom Bhagwati Nagar base camp at around 3.30 am for Pahalgam and Baltal.
For the Pahalgam route, 2,584 pilgrims left the base camp,while 2,239 pilgrims for Baltal left in 114 and 109 buses and cars, which wereescorted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), officials said.
The yatra to the holy cave commenced Monday from both Baltaland the Pahalgam routes in Kashmir valley.
Multi-tier security arrangements have been made for thesmooth and successful conduct of the yatra concluding on August 15, they said.
As many as 2.85 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance at the cavelast year, while the number of pilgrims was 3.52 lakh in 2015, 3.20 lakh in2016 and 2.60 lakh in 2017.