Srinagar: Pilgrims will visit the Amarnath cave shrine, perched 3,880-meters (12,730 feet) above sea level in the Himalayas
The local government in India-administered Kashmir is contemplating setting up makeshift shelters and facilities for 600,000 Hindu pilgrims for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, which it intends to host this summer despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The pilgrims will visit the Amarnath cave shrine, perched 3,880-meters (12,730 feet) above sea level in the Himalayas.
The government will set up two base camps — one called Baltal and another called Chandanwari — for the pilgrims, who intend to make the journey on foot. From Baltal, the pilgrims will have to walk a distance of 14 kilometers (9 miles), while those approaching Chandanwari will have to trek 32 kilometers to reach the cave shrine housing the ice stalagmite, referred to by Hindus as the Shiv Lingam (the phallus of Lord Shiva).
Although authorities have temporarily suspended online registration for the pilgrimage in the wake of a spike in daily coronavirus cases, the site still says that the pilgrimage will take place as scheduled from June 28 through August 22.
Recently, hundreds of devotees, including nine top saints, tested positive for COVID-19 in the northern city of Haridwar, where hundreds of thousands of devotees gathered to participate in the Kumbh Mela festival.
Television images of a crowd of devotees taking a ritual bath together in the Ganges River in blatant violation of social distancing rules triggered calls for authorities to call off the event. However, the suggestions were scorned by the local government, which gave preference to the festival, ignoring the reality that the virus was spreading faster.
The congregation of devotees during the pandemic has raised concerns among health experts in the region, who believe that the Amarnath pilgrimage could unleash disaster in Kashmir.
“The situation is bad across India. It would be better if the Amarnath pilgrimage was symbolic this year, and if just a few people were allowed to visit the shrine. Otherwise, it will be a catastrophe,” said Tanvir Sadiq, a senior leader of Kashmir’s grand old political party, National Conference.
It could prove to be a “fatal superspreader” event given the ill-equipped health care system in the region, Sadiq said.
On January 25, the government announced it was undertaking preparations to host about 600,000 pilgrims this year. Government insiders have said misplaced faith in the concept of herd immunity and unrealistic mathematical models are behind the government’s plans.
‘Everything seems to be collapsing’
“With the launch of the vaccine and the daily caseload going down, authorities lowered their guard and allowed a full resumption of activities, and now everything seems to be collapsing,” a senior official in civil secretariat Jammu, who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the subject, told DW.
The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which organizes the pilgrimage, said at least 30,000 devotees from different parts of the country registered for the event in April.
The annual pilgrimage was suspended in 2019 and 2020, first due to New Delhi’s decision to end the region’s special constitutional status and later due to the first wave of the pandemic.
Even after the Kumbh Mela proved to be a superspreader event, resulting in a major surge in new infections and deaths in India, authorities have yet to heed the lessons from the virus.
This year, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost one of its senior leaders — Jammu and Kashmir former minister Thakur Puran Singh — to COVID-19. Singh had gone to participate in Kumbh Mela, and showed signs of infection upon his return.
Scores of devotees who returned from the festival have also tested positive in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region.
Since August 2019, officials have been pushing to exhibit a sense of normality in Kashmir by inviting film actors, conducting fashion shows and opening tourist spots. DW
