The unprecedented rush of pilgrims to Amarnath this year has contributed to the ice Shivling in the holy mountain cave completely melting away more than 10 days before the end of the yatra.
The Amarnath shrine board confirmed that the ice stalagmite, which was particularly well-formed this year and stood 15 feet high when the yatra began on June 29, had melted away.
The premature melting is being attributed to heat produced inside the cave due to the presence of a record number of pilgrims.
Officials said around 6.15 lakh people have so far completed the annual pilgrimage, the highest in the yatra's history. Unofficial sources put the number at more than 7 lakh.
High temperatures in Kashmir over the past few weeks also seem to have played a part in the melting of the naturally forming stalagmite inside the cave at a height of 3,880 metres in the Great Himalayan range of west Kashmir.
"Early melting of the lingam is not unusual. In 2007, it had melted by July 2. Last year, it was gone by around July 30. This is a natural phenomenon and it will not dampen the spirit of the devotees," said Preet Pal Singh, additional chief executive officer of the Amarnath shrine board.
The lingam's disappearance was corroborated by devotees near the cave shrine. "I visited the holy cave on Monday last week. The Shivling then was just around 2 feet high. By the end of the week, we heard from visitors that Lord Shiva had left for his Kailash Mansarovar abode (meaning the lingam had disappeared)," said Sunil Kumar on phone from Panchtarni, 6km away from the shrine. Kumar is president of a Chandigarh-based organization that runs a community kitchen for pilgrims.
The shrine board authorities have been blamed for violating the recommendations of the Nitesh Sengupta committee that had proposed allowing no more than around 5,000 pilgrims each day into the cave. At the height of the yatra in the first half of July, about 25,000 yatris were visiting the shrine each day, leading to dangerous overcrowding in the high mountain paths.
According to an update released early last week, 82 people had died in less than a month of the yatra, most of them due to heart-related ailments but some also because of injuries. Last year, 68 people had died during the entire two-month period of the pilgrimage.
The yatra ends on Shravan Purnima on August 13, which coincides with the Raksha Bandhan festival.
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