Amid tight security, the 17th batch of 4,167 Amarnathpilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here on Thursday for the3,880-metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said.
As many as 13,928 pilgrims paid obeisance to the ice lingamof Lord Shiva at the holy cave shrine till Wednesday night, taking the totalnumber of devotees who have offered prayers at the shrine since the beginningof the yatra on July 1 to 2,19,011.
Over 2.30 lakh pilgrims from across the country have so farregistered themselves for the 46-day long pilgrimage, which takes place fromthe twin tracks — traditional 36-km Pahalgam in Anantnag district and 14-kmshorter Baltal in Ganderbal district.
The 17th batch comprising 4,167 pilgrims — 3,211 males, 790females, 25 children, 140 seers and one transgender– left in a fleet of 169vehicles from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp on Thursday morning for twin basecamps of Pahalgam and Baltal in Kashmir, the officials said.
For the Pahalgam route, 2,634 pilgrims left the base camp,while 1,533 pilgrims for Baltal left in 98 and 71 buses and light motorvehicles, which were escorted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF),officials said.
With this, a total of 84,348 pilgrims have so far left theBhagwati Nagar base camp since the commencement of the yatra from Jammu on June30, a day ahead of the official start.
Multi-tier security arrangements have been made for smoothand successful conduct of the yatra, which is concluding on August 15.
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.