On Tuesday, authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have suspended the Amarnath Yatra, due to bad weather caused by the monsoons, NDTV reported.
The pilgrims will not be allowed to proceed beyond the Pahalgam base camp towards the cave high up in the Pir Panjal mountains.
Earlier, it was reported that over 5,000 pilgrims have so far paid obeisance at the Amarnath cave shrine as another batch of 6,351 pilgrims left Jammu to perform the ongoing Amarnath Yatra on Tuesday.
The Amarnath Yatra has resumed after a gap of two years. The Yatra could not take place during the preceding years due to the COVID pandemic.
Amarnath - The holy cave
The cave is situated at an altitude of 3,888 m (12,756 ft), about 141 km from Srinagar.
The cave, located in Lidder Valley, is surrounded by glaciers, snowy mountains and is covered with snow most of the year, except for a short period of time in summer when it is open to pilgrims.
In 1989, pilgrims numbered between 12,000 and 30,000.
In 2011, the numbers reached a peak, crossing 6.3 lakh (630,000) pilgrims.
In 2018 pilgrims numbered 2.85 lakh (285,000). The annual pilgrimage has varied between 20 and 60 days.
The shrine represents an important part of Hinduism. The Shiva Lingam is a stalagmite formation located at the Amarnath Mountain which has a peak of 5,186 metres (17,014 ft), and inside a 40 m (130 ft) high cave at an elevation of 3,888 m (12,756 ft).
The stalagmite is formed due to the freezing of water drops that fall from the roof of the cave onto the floor resulting in an upward vertical growth of ice.
