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Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, November 20
As the last of the few pilgrims left Badrinath shrine, the last among the five shrines to close down yesterday, there was a sense of satisfaction among the organisers of the Char Dham for hosting over 18 lakh pilgrims, who paid their obeisance at the five shrines of Gangotri, Yamnotri, Badrinath, Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib.
During 2014 and 2015, the pilgrimage remained disrupted only to pick pace in 2016. During the 2016 Char Dham yatra, around 13 lakh pilgrims visited the shrines. Though heavy rains had again disrupted the yatra during that period the efforts put in by the Congress government under former Chief Minister Harish Rawat proved fruitful.
According to the figures provided by the Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee which organises the yatra, around 7.63 lakh pilgrims were registered at the 16 registration centres set up by a private company. This company was hired by the government for carrying out photo registrations. A total of 18,53,900 pilgrims visited the five shrines.
“This year, we were able to keep a tab on the number of pilgrims coming in due to the setting up of 16 registrations centres at key points. The pilgrims came from all the states and union territories of the country”, said BD Singh, Chief Executive officer (CEO) of the temple committee.
The highest number of pilgrims turned up from Uttar Pradesh (98,161). From Maharashtra 90,114 pilgrims, from Madhya Pradesh 75,216 devotees and from Punjab 74,521 pilgrims visited the shrines.
A few pilgrims also came from the nborth eastern states of Mizoram (4) and Nagaland (17).
The shrine of Yamnotri attracted around 3,03,784 pilgrims, Gangotri 3,53,266, Kedarnath 5,60,053, Badrinath 5,09,718 and Hemkund Sahib 1,25,079 pilgrims.
In addition to the local pilgrims from around the country around 13,000 foreign tourists also visited these shrines.
Maximum pilgrims from UP
2
4
5
6
8