Four Amarnath pilgrims have died over the past 24 hours enroute the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, taking the death in thisyear’s pilgrimage to 30, officials said on Wednesday.
“While three pilgrims died on Tuesday, one more pilgrimdied this morning due to various causes during their pilgrimage to the holycave shrine of Shri Amarnathji,” they said.
The officials said the death toll in this year’s pilgrimagehas now gone up to 30, which included 26 pilgrims, two sevadars (volunteers)and two security forces personnel deployed on duty en route the holy cave.
In addition to these, 40 others have been taken ill orsustained injuries due to shooting stones and other causes since the pilgrimagebegan on July 1, they said.
Deaths due to cardiac arrest triggered by lack of oxygen inthe area around the cave shrine have been common over the years, prompting theShri Amarnath Shrine Board to issue regular health advisories to the pilgrims.
All pilgrims are required to get a fitness certificate froma doctor before undertaking the pilgrimage to the cave shrine located at analtitude of 3,888 metres.
Nearly 2.96 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance to thenaturally formed ice-lingam in the cave shrine in the 24 days of thepilgrimage.
The number of pilgrims who have paid obeisance at the caveshrine this year is already higher than the 2.83 lakh of last year.