Over 1 lakh devotees perform ongoing Amarnath Yatra

Srinagar, July 8 (IANS) Over one lakh devotees have performed the ongoing Amarnath Yatra so far as another batch of 6,159 Yatris left Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu for the Valley on Friday.

"Over 1,00,000 devotees have so far performed the ongoing Amarnath Yatra while another batch of 6,159 pilgrims left Bhagwati Nagar base camp for the Valley today. Of these, 2037 pilgrims are going to Baltal base camp while 4122 are going to Pahalgam base camp," official sources said on Friday.

Pilgrims using the Baltal route have to trek 14 km to reach the cave shrine. They return to the base camp the same day after having 'darshan' at the cave shrine.

Those using the traditional Pahalgam route have to trek 48 km for 4 days to reach the cave shrine.

Helicopter services are also available for the devotees on both the routes.

The cave shrine situated 3,888 metre above the sea level.

Amarnath Yatra 2022 started on June 30 and will end on August 11 on Shravan Purnima coinciding with the Raksha Bandhan festival.