Police have registered a case against unidentified individuals for allegedly setting off fireworks near the Kedarnath temple and sharing the video on social media. This action follows several incidents of controversial videos being filmed at the shrine since the Kedarnath Yatra began.
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.
In view of the safety of the passengers, the district administration stopped the passengers at Sonprayag and Gaurikund due to continuous bad weather.
The government will review the weather conditions in the coming days and accordingly take a decision in the interest of the pilgrims, he said.
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.
Snowfall in the higher reaches of Garhwal Himalayas and intermittent rains in lower areas affected the Char Dham yatra on Tuesday with the pilgrimage to the famous Kedarnath shrine suspended till May 16 and yatra to Badrinath halted temporarily.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will undertake a yatra to Kedarnath on Thursday, trekking 18 km up into the Uttarkhand mountains to pay obeisance at the temple which faced the brunt of flash-floods two years ago and has since been spruced up.
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.
The pilgrimage to Kedarnath was suspended on Wednesday for three days in view of the weather department's warning of heavy rains in the area and frequent blockage of roads to the Himalayan shrine following intermittent showers in the valley over the past few days.
Officials said around 1,300 pilgrims are stranded in Kedarnath, Bhimbali and Gaurikund, and are safe.
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.
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.
The recent helicopter crash near Kedarnath, in which seven lives were lost, has proven yet again that aviation regulatory authorities have not learnt lessons from similar air mishaps in the challenging Kedar valley and have done little to improve flying conditions.
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.
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The aftermath of the cloudburst triggered by heavy rainfall in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
A helicopter carrying pilgrims from Guptkashi to Kedarnath crashed on Tuesday amid poor visibility and seven people on board are feared dead.
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.
The TMC leader said all these moves were well calculated with the "ill intention to influence the voters" on the polling day.
Since the yatra began, as many as 28 tourists en route to Kedarnath have died due to various reasons.
Pilgrimage to Kedarnath shrine in Garhwal Himalayas, which was suspended in the wake of the June calamity in Uttarakhand, will be resumed on October one, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Thursday said.
Twelve people, including three of a family, were killed and six injured in heavy overnight rains that triggered flooding and house collapse as several rivers swelled in Uttarakhand, officials said on Thursday.
The gold plating of the sanctum sanctorum was done under the supervision of the experts of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), he said.
Snowfall and rain hit the Char Dham Yatra on Tuesday with thousands of pilgrims halted en route to Kedarnath and Yamunotri temples in the Garhwal Himalayas as a precautionary measure.
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.
Rahul Gandhi reached the revered ancient Kedarnath shrine in the lower Himalayas on Friday morning
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A tab was kept on visiting pilgrims through CCTV cameras to ensure there was no violation of COVID-19 protocol.
The Indian Air Force's Chinook and MI17 helicopters on Friday joined the rescue operations in Uttarakhand to evacuate over 500 pilgrims stranded on the rain-ravaged trek route to Kedarnath, with 10 of them being airlifted in the first round.
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.
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.
Announcing this in Dehradun on Thursday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat said conducting the yatra amid the raging pandemic is not possible.
The drive begins just days ahead of the Char Dham Yatra in the state.
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.
Puja at the Kedarnath temple is set to resume on September 11. However, the yatra to the battered shrine wouldn't resume this season.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is trekking 18 kilometres up in the mountains of Uttarakhand to the Kedarnath Temple.
The Badrinath temple in the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand opened for devotees on Sunday, May 12, 2024, after remaining closed during the winter.
The restoration work of the Kedarnath shrine, which was destroyed in last year's floods, will be done by the Archaeological Survey of India.
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