Mercury rising in Amarnath

The 12-feet ice lingam in the Amarnath shrine, at an altitude of 3,880 metres, melted completely on Sunday (right). The melting, being blamed on rise in temperatures, has come at a time when the first batch of Amarnath pilgrims, which was scheduled to leave Jammu on June 30, is still stranded in the city.

The shrine board has decided to clear all the 8,000 pilgrims stranded at various places enroute to the shrine before allowing the first batch to proceed from Pahalgam and Baltal. While nearly 4,000 pilgrims are stranded at Baltal, another 2,500 are held up at Nunwan and 1,500 enroute the cave.