Vinod Sharma
Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 3: Apart from affecting tourism industry and Kashmir valley, the three month unrest has also impacted the Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage as the pilgrims' number has shown sharp decline.
Moreover though there are possibilities that the pilgrimage will cross last year figure but there are negligible possibilities that the it exceeds 85 lakh.
As per the recent data furnished by Yatra Registration Center Katra to Early Times it has come to fore that the initial arrival of pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi Cave Shrine, was good and there were hopes that the pilgrim number would cross the last year figure of 77. 76 Lakhs.
"But due to turmoil the pilgrim arrival has recorded sharp decline in the months of July, August and September in comparison to previous three months", the records narrate.
For the month of April pilgrims number was 7,56851 for May 9,81,809 and June 12,21,214 pilgrims which showed a increasing trend but for the months of July, the number declined to 7,16721 for August the number was 6,19,999 and for September the number declined to 5,67,393 pilgrims.
For the year 2016, so far the total pilgrims visited cave shrine remained at 62,41914 but for the previous year the total number of pilgrims was 77.76 Lakhs and in the last three days, the pilgrims number has shown sharp increase with the onset of Navratras.
Sources in Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board pleading anonymity said that they were expecting huge rush in the months of July, August and September but due to turmoil in valley, the pilgrims number showed downward trend and if went by the pilgrims number of two Navratras, this month would probably broke the record of previous month in which only 5.67 pilgrims had visited the cave shrine.
They further said that the year, 2011 and 2012 had witnessed record number of pilgrims, with 101.15 lakhs and 104.95 Lakhs respectively.
Moreover, in the year 2008 the pilgrims who paid obeisance at Shrine were 67.92 Lakhs while in year 2007 the number was 74.17 lakhs which was six lakhs less than the previous years. In 2013, 2014, and 2015 there number was 93.24 lakhs, 78.03 lakhs and 77.76 respectively. |
