Char Dham Yatra: Massive Crowd Of Devotees Throng Yamunotri; Police Issues Advisory After Chaos

As the Char Dham Yatra began on May 10, thousands of devotees thronged the Yamunotri Dham on May 11 leading to chaos as people were not able to move forward and were stuck in narrow risky lanes for hours. The absence of police and home guards made the situation more critical on the first day as a video of a massive crowd went viral on social media. Police swung into action after that urging the devotees to postpone their journey for the next day. 

#आवश्यक_सूचना
आज श्री यमुनोत्री धाम पर क्षमता के अनुसार पर्याप्त श्रद्धालु यात्रा के लिये पहुँच चुके हैं। अब और अधिक श्रद्धालुओं को भेजना जोखिम भरा है। जो भी श्रद्धालु आज यमुनोत्री यात्रा पर आने जा रहे हैं, उनसे विनम्र अपील है कि आज यमुनोत्री जी की यात्रा स्थगित करें।

— Uttarkashi Police Uttarakhand (@UttarkashiPol) May 12, 2024

The Uttarkashi police issued advisory saying that sufficient devotees have reached Yamunotri and that sending more devotees can be dangerous. It further requested worshippers to postpone their yatra for May 13. "Today, a sufficient number of devotees have reached Shri Yamunotri Dham as per its capacity. Now, sending more devotees is risky. All the devotees who are going to Yamunotri today, are requested to postpone their Yamunotri Yatra today," the Uttarkashi Police tweeted.

यमुनोत्री में फ़ैल हुए इंतजाम.. भारी संख्या में श्रद्धालु, लगा जाम #Yamunotri #YamunotriDham #Uttarakhand | @supreetanchor pic.twitter.com/hUPfCzNqvT — Zee News (@ZeeNews) May 12, 2024

In another tweet, the Uttarkashi police informed about traffic and security arrangements for the Yamunotri Dham route. It tweeted, "SP Uttarkashi Shri Arpan Yaduvanshi reached Yamuna Valley and took charge of traffic and security to make traffic and police arrangements for the Yamunotri Dham Yatra route. To ensure systematic traffic management and to deal with traffic jams, he is coming on the road at midnight to monitor the arrangements."

The police also informed that for the convenience and safety of the pilgrims, the traffic/journey is being operated through a gate/one-way system on narrow and sensitive routes. "On the Yamunotri walking route, horses, mules and dandi-kandi are being operated through a rotation system," the police tweeted.

Meanwhile, over 29,000 devotees paid obeisance at Kedarnath Dham on the first day of the pilgrimage of Char Dham Yatra.