Located at a height of 3,880 metres in the Himalayas of southern Kashmir, the shrine of Amarnath has observed an annual pilgrimage of thousands of devotees for decades. After coming to a halt in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pilgrimage has resumed and will commence on June 30, according to officials.  

A meeting of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board chaired by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha along with officials and administrators on Sunday arrived at the conclusion of a 43-day holy pilgrimage commencing on June 30 with necessary COVID-19 protocols. 

“Today chaired Board meeting of Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. The 43-day holy pilgrimage will commence on 30th June with all covid protocols in place & culminate, as per the tradition, on the day of Raksha Bandhan. We had in-depth discussion on various issues also on upcoming Yatra,” Sinha wrote on Twitter. 

Earlier this week, a senior official announced that the shrine board will hold a meeting on Sunday to discuss the dates and protocols of the annual pilgrimage. 

“The Board will meet at 12 pm on Sunday at the Raj Bhawan in Jammu, where Sinha, Kumar and ACEO Rahul Singh besides other officials will deliberate upon the ensuing pilgrimage and take a call on its duration and dates,” the senior official said, according to a report by Hindustan Times.

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“It is expected that the LG and Board officials will announce the dates and duration after the meeting,” he added.

Registration process

According to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), the registration of pilgrims will begin from April via an online portal.

It will have a fixed limit of 20,000 registrations per day. On-the-spot registrations will be available at the counters during the yatra.

Safety measures

To ensure the safety of pilgrims, radio frequency identification (RFID) will be used by “tracking movement of the vehicles and pilgrims. The RFID tag cards will be issued to all the pilgrims.”

Last year’s Amarnath yatra

The Amarnath yatra was suspended midway in 2019 after the revocation of Article 370 in August that year. 

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Last year, the shrine board had initially decided to hold a 56-day annual Yatra from June 28 to August 22, simultaneously along the Baltal and Chandanwari routes, but the decision was called off as the country witnessed a massive spike in COVID-19 cases.