Tight security has been imposed as Hindu pilgrimage begins in Kashmir

The annual Hindu pilgrimage to a sacred Himalayan cave in Indian-administered Kashmir began on Friday amid tight security that includes the deployment of thousands of paramilitaries and police.

Tens of thousands of Hindus travel, ride horses or take a helicopter ride to the Himalayan cave called Amarnath, located at an altitude of about 3,888 meters (12,756 feet). Hindus believe that a natural ice stalagmite in the cave, believed to have been discovered by a Muslim shepherd in the nineteenth century, is a manifestation of the Hindu deity Shiva.

Before the 90s, the pilgrimage was a low-key affair lasting 15-30 days, but after 1990, when the raging anti-Indian insurgency began, the number of pilgrims steadily increased, especially after the formation in the year 2000 a council that oversees the conduct of the pilgrimage.

The rush has been aided by state-sponsored infrastructure, some of it in environmentally fragile areas, which has alarmed environmentalists and which had caused an uproar in 2008 after 50 acres of state forest land was transferred to the board. The land transfer order was subsequently withdrawn and the unrest led to the fall of the then local coalition government.

In 2005, the board extended the yatra (pilgrimage) to two months, but weather sometimes forces authorities to curtail the duration.

Last year, 450,000 Hindus from different parts of India visited the cave. This year’s pilgrimage will end on August 19. The local government has set up several transit lodges along the two pilgrimage routes, where pilgrims stay before starting the journey to the cave.

This year’s pilgrimage comes against the backdrop of an attack on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims in Jammu province on June 9. The bus had plunged into a gorge after the driver lost control after being fired upon by suspected militants, killing nine and injuring dozens of passengers.

Government forces conducted mock security drills near the camps housing the pilgrims and along the pilgrimage routes. Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant General Manoj Sinha visited one of the two key base camps in Kashmir and asked the officials to “coordinate with each other for better security and management”.