Click to play videoJammu: Last year, the Amarnath Yatra was mired in controversy over melting, and then allegations of tampering of the ice shivling. [Read story]
But this year, the Amarnath Shrine Board is not taking chances. Therefore, there will be not one but two shivlings at the cave, giving the devotes little room for complaint.
Just a few meters away from the natural lingam, right at the entrance of the cave, a five-feet white marble shivling has been put up.
“A number of times, devotees reached the shrine and there was no shivling. With this (the new idol), the pilgrims can worship and perform rituals outside and then go inside to pay obeisance at the natural one,” says member of the Board, Vishav Murti Shastri.
The move has been initiated to protect the natural lingam. With over two lakh pilgrims visiting the cave every year, the warming effects were evident, especially with the pilgrims constantly touching the ice-shivling and lighting incense sticks near it.
“If people perform the rituals outside, they will spend less time inside the cave. There will less warmth and the ice lingam will last longer. All this is being done to protect it,” says Shastri.
The Shrine Board has also erected a 53-feet grill round the ice shivling for protection. The IITs and the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) were asked to suggest techniques to keep the temperature at freezing point inside the cave.
As for the devotees, they are not complaining, at least as of now. “Last year there were controversies of tampering. But his year it seems like a good decision,” says a devotee SK Bajaja.
Reports say that the glacier cover at Amarnath has receded by over 100 m and global warming is also affecting the formation of the natural shivling.
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