Amid tight security, 14th batch of 5,210 Amarnath pilgrimsleft a base camp here on Monday for the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine in southKashmir.
As many as 8,734 pilgrims paid obeisance to Lord Shiva inthe shape of Ice Lingum at the Amarnath cave shrine till Sunday night, therebytaking the total to 1,82,712 pilgrims, who have visited the holy site in thepast 11 days.
Over 1.85 lakh pilgrims from across the country have so farregistered themselves for the 46-day-long pilgrimage.
The 14th batch comprises 3,711 males, 1,386 females, 19children and 94 seers, who left in a fleet of 222 vehicles from the BhagwatiNagar camp here this morning for the twin base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal,officials said.
For the Pahalgam route, 2,838 pilgrims left the base camp,while 2,372 pilgrims left for Baltal. They are travelling in 123 buses and 99small vehicles, which were escorted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF),the officials said.
With this, a total of 71,630 pilgrims had so far left theBhagwati Nagar base camp since the commencement of the yatra from Jammu on June30, a day ahead of the official start of the pilgrimage from the twin tracks —traditional 36-km Pahalgam in Anantnag district and 14-km shorter Baltal inGanderbal district, the officials said.
Multi-tier security arrangements have been made for smoothand successful conduct of the yatra, which will conclude on August 15.
As many as 2.85 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the cavelast year. The number of pilgrims was 3.52 lakh in 2015, 3.20 lakh in 2016 and2.60 lakh in 2017.