The devotees who were travelling to Kedarnath Dham in Uttarakhand have been stopped at Sonprayag due to a heavy rush, said Rudraprayag Circle Officer Pramod Kumar .
The police and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel have stopped the devotees at Sonprayag since 10 am. “They will now be sent to Kedarnath Dham from 4 am on Sunday, May 29,” said the Rudraprayag Circle Officer.
After a day’s break, the pilgrimage to Kedarnath resumed again on Wednesday.
The Kedarnath yatra was stopped due to snowfall and bad weather on May 24 and the devotees were asked to remain at the point/stopover they were staying and proceed only after the weather clears.
This time, Kedarnath has attracted record footfall. The annual Char Dham Yatra to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri is at its peak in Uttarakhand. The response of the devotees has taken the tourism experts by surprise.
Among the four Hindu pilgrimage centres, Kedarnath has attracted the biggest footfall.
Earlier, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had made an appeal to pilgrims to suspend their trip to Kedarnath for a brief period due to bad weather. With fresh snowfall on Tuesday, a chilling situation prevailed in Kedarnath. Besides heavy woolens, the visitors needed raincoats for moving from one place to another in Kedarnath.
Conscious of the 2013 Kedarnath deluge tragedy, the Rudraprayag district administration had also appealed to pilgrims to stay put at their respective stations till the weather improves.
The Chardham yatra began with the opening of Gangotri and Yamunotri portals for devotees on May 3, on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya in the presence of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. While Kedarnath re-opened on May 6, the doors of Badrinath opened on May 8.
