Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Amarnath yatra that had been suspended earlier in the morning on Monday due to the heavy rains has resumed.
The yatra had begun on Sunday after two days of bad weather.
The first batch of 2356 pilgrims left Jammu on Monday for the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas.
The batch comprising 1261 men, 427 women, 65 children and 603 sadhus left from the base camp of Mam stadium here around 0530 hours, officials said.
Flagged off by the Minister for Roads and Buildings Gulchain Singh Charak from Mam stadium, the devotees left in a cavalcade of 73 vehicles, including 52 buses, aimd tight security.
The cavalcade had reached Batote, about 110 km from here, by 1000 hours, they said, adding that landslide on national highway near Ramban hampered the vehicular traffic temporarily.
However, authorities were at work to clear the landslide and the yatris were expected to cross the area in the afternoon and reach their destinations at Pahalgam and Baltal by evening.
Devotees trekking to the cave shrine face another disappointment this year. The naturally formed ice Shiva lingam has completely melted.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Amarnath Shrine Board, Arun Kumar, confirmed this.
The lingam has apparently melted down owing to a rise in temperature. Two other ice lingams, representing Ganesh and Parvati, have reportedly not melted, though their size has reduced.
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