Chardham Yatra is headed for a new record this year. Maximum 46,27,292 devotees visited Hemkund Sahib and Chardham in 2022. This year, though, this threshold was crossed with only around 1.5 months left in the yatra season. The unique aspect is that while Kedarnath has nearly equaled last year’s numbers in terms of pilgrimage, a record number of pilgrims have arrived at Gangotri and Yamunotri Dham this year.
Yamunotri and Gangotri Dham’s doors officially opened on April 22
The opening of the portals to Gangotri and Yamunotri signalled the beginning of the Chardham Yatra 2023 on April 22 of this year. On April 25, Kedarnath’s doors were opened, and on April 27, Badrinath Dham’s doors were opened. The Chardham Yatra was in full gear in May and June, but it slowed down a bit when the rains began in the middle of July.
Yatra in August was severely hampered by the blocking of many routes. For a few days, there were hardly any pilgrims in Gangotri and Yamunotri Dham because of the blocked roads.
Every day, more than 40.000 pilgrims are reaching Chardham
The Chardham Yatra resumed its upward trajectory in the second week of September as soon as the weather improved after the rainy season, and it has already reached its pinnacle once more. Currently, more over 40.000 pilgrims are reaching daily at Chardham and Hemkund.
Most devotees are reaching Kedarnath this year. So far 15,31,946 pilgrims have visited Kedarnath. Whereas, last year this number was 15,63,275 during the entire journey period. As compared to 17,63,549 pilgrims who reached Badrinath during the entire Yatra period last year, 14,57,755 pilgrims have reached Badrinath this season. In contrast, 6,24,516 pilgrims had reached Gangotri Dham during the entire yatra period last year. This time this number has reached 8,16,362.
This time till now 6,73,462 pilgrims have visited Yamunotri as compared to 4,85,688. So far 1,68,057 pilgrims have reached Hemkund. This number remained 1,90,264 during the entire travel period last year.
