The Amarnath yatra will start from July 1
After the big success of G20 meet held in Srinagar, the Jammu and Kashmir administration is busy making arrangements for the upcoming Amarnath yatra, scheduled to start from July 1.
Amid intelligence inputs of possible attempts by Pakistan-based terror outfits to disrupt the yatra, Home Minister Amit Shah will review arrangements in a high-level meeting scheduled to be held later this week.
"All stakeholders which are part of yatra would be part of this meeting and all issues relating to arrangements being made for yatra would be discussed," a senior Home Ministry official said.
According to him, apart from security, issues on other aspects of yatra would also be discussed.
"This year there was a lot of snow on both tracks leading to the holy cave, so the Border Road Organisation has been given time till June 15 to clear the tracks," he said.
Last year, 3.45 lakh people visited the holy cave.
"Forty-five per cent of them came from Baltaal route and the remaining 55 per cent from Pahalgam route. This year we assume that number will go up to five lakh, so arrangements are being made accordingly," a senior officer on the ground said.
To avoid any incident like last year's when 16 people were killed after flash floods triggered by heavy rain near the shrine, the NDRF has started identifying locations for creating pilgrim camps "away from the tracks where flood waters can roll down and sweep people away".
"To avoid casualties from flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods, the NDRF has identified sites for camps for yatris," a senior officer said.
Indian Air Force helicopters and the Union Territory administration will regularly undertake aerial sorties in the upper reaches of the holy cave to check for glacial events and the formation of lakes that may trigger flash floods downhill.
"Last year, such sorties were conducted only after the flash floods occurred in June, but this year, the exercise will be undertaken before the start of the yatra and at continuous intervals during the two-month pilgrimage," the officer added.
The aerial surveys will be conducted by a team with expertise in remote sensing and satellite, hydrology and disaster response. Once a dangerous water build-up is spotted, contingency measures will be taken all along the yatra route, especially the area near the cave shrine, he added.
The annual pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath, located at a height of 3,880 metres in the south Kashmir Himalayas, will begin on July 1 and continue till August 31.