2,416 more pilgrims left on the Amarnath Yatra from a base camp here on Thursday, officials said.
This was the 25th batch of pilgrims to leave Jammu for the3,880-metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas.
As many as 3,01,818 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the caveshrine till Wednesday evening.
Over 3.30 lakh pilgrims from across the country have so farregistered themselves for the 46-day-long pilgrimage, which takes place fromthe 36-km Pahalgam track in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district and 14-kmBaltal route in Ganderbal district.
Thursday’s batch, comprising 1,789 males, 474 females, sevenchildren and 146 seers, left in a fleet of 99 vehicles from Bhagwati Nagar basecamp here for twin base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal in Kashmir Valley, theyadded.
There was heavy rains in Jammu, they said.
Four Amarnath pilgrims have died on Tuesday and Wednesday enroute the cave shrine, taking the death toll in this year’s pilgrimage to 30,the officials said.
The pilgrimage commenced on July 1 from both Baltal andPahalgam routes.
Multi-tier security arrangements have been made for smoothand successful conduct of the pilgrimage which concludes on August 15.
As many as 2.85 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the caveshrine last year, while the number of pilgrims was 3.52 lakh in 2015, 3,20 lakhin 2016 and 2.60 lakh in 2017.