SRINAGAR: Two more Amarnath pilgrims have died, bringing this year’s death toll during the pilgrimage in the south Kashmir Himalayas to 36, officials said.
The two pilgrims were from Rajasthan. They have been identified as Phateh Lal Manaria, 60 (died at the cave) and Mangi Lal, 60 (died at the Baltal base camp).
While Manaria died of cardiac arrest, the cause of Lal’s death was being ascertained, officials said.
These two deaths bring the total toll during the yatra this year to 36. Cardiac arrest triggered by low oxygen concentration at high altitudes is one of the most common causes of fatalities among Amarnath pilgrims and security forces posted there.
So far, more than three lakh pilgrims have visited the cave shrine. The 62-day annual pilgrimage to the 3,888-metre-high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas started on July 1st from Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district and is scheduled to conclude on August 31st.
