At least 38 pilgrims have died due to health-related reasons in the first 26 days of the Char Dham Yatra in Uttarakhand. The pilgrimage began on April 19, with Kedarnath recording the highest fatalities.
Around 2 million commercial and domestic LPG cylinders will be required to meet demand from hotels, restaurants, and roadside eateries during the upcoming Char Dham Yatra 2026, according to Prajapati Nautiyal, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the Char Dham Yatra Administration Organisation.
Film actress Sara Ali Khan's entry to Badrinath and Kedarnath temple complexes is contingent on submitting an affidavit declaring her faith in Sanatan Dharma, according to the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee chairman.
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A landslide on the Kedarnath route in Uttarakhand killed two pilgrims and injured six, while heavy rain led to the temporary suspension of the Char Dham and Hemkund Sahib pilgrimages.
After chairing an emergency meeting with senior officials to discuss the situation, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that heli services on the Char Dham route will remain suspended for two days, as the weather is bad and the safety of the passengers is the government's top priority.
Soon after the crash on Sunday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held an emergency meeting and asked senior officials to prepare a strict SOP (standard operating procedure) for heli services in the state, making a thorough check of the technical condition of the choppers mandatory.
According to a statement from the Rudraprayag police, the landslide was triggered by continuous heavy rainfall, which caused large amounts of debris and stones to fall onto the trekking route, blocking and damaging the walkway to Kedarnath Dham.
Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar told PTI that the accident took place above the forests of Gaurikund amid poor visibility due to bad weather.
Citing the example of last year, he said many pilgrims who came for the yatra from rural areas of Uttar Pradesh had to return from Rishikesh and Haridwar as they had not registered in advance for it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Mukhwa temple in Uttarakhand, the winter abode of Goddess Ganga, and offered prayers. The visit is expected to boost winter pilgrimage and tourism in the state. Modi also flagged off a trek and bike rally and addressed a public meeting in Harshil. This comes a day after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved two major ropeway projects to Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib worth over Rs 6,000 crore.
Akshaya Tritiya is a festival associated with good luck and prosperity.
Ending the line at Pipalkoti will mean the army will have to cover a longer distance to the China border by road than it would have needed to had the rail link gone up to Joshimath.
The famous Char Dham pilgrimage began on Wednesday with the reopening of the Gangotri and the Yamnotri shrines in the Garhwal Himalayas after a period of six months.
A Border Roads Organisation team will be stationed in Joshimath to monitor the yatra on a day-to-day basis and ensure immediate treatment of cracks on roads or any other problem that might arise, the chief minister said.
Five pilgrims and a pilot onboard a helicopter had a narrow escape when the aircraft on its way to Kedarnath made an emergency landing on the highway in Rudraprayag district on Saturday after developing a technical snag during take-off, officials said.
A Rs 195 crore-package was announced by the government on Friday for reconstruction of the 'Char Dham' pilgrimage circuit, which was badly affected by the Uttarakhand rain disaster.
Resumption of 'Char Dham yatra' after a gap of two Covid-marred years is a welcome development for thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on it, but the death of 78 pilgrims on way to the Himalayan temples in less than a month is causing concern.
The 4.5 kilometre-long Silkyara tunnel project in Uttarakhand, which is part of the central government's strategic 900-km 'Char Dham Yatra All Weather Road', will continue after the necessary safety audit and repair of the broken structure, a senior road ministry official said on Wednesday.
The government will review the weather conditions in the coming days and accordingly take a decision in the interest of the pilgrims, he said.
A high-level committee constituted by Dhami to look into the Devasthanam Board issue had submitted its recommendations to the chief minister in Rishikesh on Sunday.
The process of opening the doors of Kedar Dham began at 3 am. Shiva Shankar Linga, the chief priest of the shrine, carried out the tradition of opening the doors. The first 'pooja' was performed in the name of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said a statement.
'The temple's construction is the result of collective wisdom of some of the best brains in the country. Water and sacred soil from almost all pilgrimage sites in India, including Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kailash Mansarovar, Prayags (there are seven Prayags) and all 'puris' (seven holy towns in India, besides Ayodhya) have been used in the making of the temple'
A tab was kept on visiting pilgrims through CCTV cameras to ensure there was no violation of COVID-19 protocol.
The notification issued by the Union Environment Ministry also exempts projects pertaining to the expansion of terminal buildings at airports (without an increase in the existing area of the airport) from seeking green nod.
Lifting the ban on the yatra, a division bench of the court comprising Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma said the pilgrimage will start with restrictions like a daily limit on the number of devotees visiting the temples.
The Devasthanam Board was assigned the management of 51 temples of the state, including the four famous Himalayan shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
The ministry of tourism is less concerned about the impact of the floods on life and property, but is more focused on promoting tourism, says Swathi Seshadri. Anupam Chakravartty reports
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced the names of candidates for 59 out of 70 seats in Uttarakhand for the upcoming assembly polls.
These human interventions in nature, along with climate change, are responsible for the disaster faced by the pilgrim town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand, which is sinking, he said.
Tour operators in Odisha are set to suffer losses as tourists and pilgrims have started cancelling their bookings to various destinations in north India following the devastating floods in Uttarakhand.
Around 1,000 devotees will be allowed to visit Kedarnath shrine daily when its portals are opened on May 4, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said and sought to allay safety concerns of pilgrims.
The death toll in the Uttarkashi bus accident rose to 26 with the recovery of one more body after which the search and rescue operation was concluded, officials said on Monday.
The sacred portals of Badrinath shrine in Garhwal Himalayas were reopened on Monday after a gap of six months amid chants of vedic hymns and elaborate rituals.
The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday put the number of missing people in last month's tragedy at 5,360 and announced that pilgrimage to Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines will resume by September 30 even as fresh rains pounded several parts of the state and claimed 11 lives.
'My belief that I could protect the Himalayas was shattered.'
The temple doors were opened at 8.50 am and the prime minister arrived just about half an hour later to offer prayers and perform a 'rudrabhishek'.
Evacuation of all people stranded in the affected areas of Uttarakhand may take many days considering the scale of devastation and any number of helicopters for rescue job is not enough, a senior army officer said on Friday.
With questions being raised whether large-scale deaths in Uttarkhand could have been averted, the MeT department today said it had issued "timely" warnings of heavy rains and landslides while the state government claimed there was not enough prior indication of a "crisis of this magnitude".
Opposition leaders believe this entire plan has been put in place to ensure that Mamata Banerjee is kept out of office in West Bengal.
