Thousands of pilgrims flock to Kedarnath, get stranded near Sitapur. Watch

In view of the crowd, offline registration for the Char Dham Yatra has been paused till May 31.

Kedarnath Yatra crowd

With a large number of pilgrims visiting the Kedarnath Temple in Uttarakhand, a video of chaos near the Sitapur area is doing rounds on the Internet. In view of the crowd, offline registration for the Char Dham Yatra has been paused till May 31.

The now-viral video shows over a thousand pilgrims stuck in heavy traffic in the Sitapur area, most of them on foot. The video shows vans stuck in a narrow lane. A man can be heard saying, “If you want to come to Kedarnath, please watch this video. This is only Sitapur, which is 40 km from Kedarnath. The place is crowded and management is not making any arrangements to clear the crowd.”

Sharing the video, an X handle @IndianTechGuide wrote, “This situation is not good in Kedarnath. Stay safe, and plan accordingly.”

Watch the video video here:

🚨 The situation is not good in Kedarnath. Stay safe, and plan accordingly. (📹-@askrajeshsahu) pic.twitter.com/IWpWqiOe3i

— Indian Tech & Infra (@IndianTechGuide) May 26, 2024

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The video amassed over 2,69,000 views, raising concerns about the safety of the pilgrims. Reacting to the video, a user wrote, “A tragedy waiting to happen.” Another user commented, “Time to set limit of visitors in such places based on the load it can take, else disaster can strike.”

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“Plan accordingly and stay safe in Kedarnath as things are not going well,” a third user wrote.

According to the Uttarakhand government’s official statement, two Yatra Magistrates––Ashok Kumar Pandey and Pankaj Kumar Upadhyay––have been deployed to manage the crowd at Badrinath and Kedarnath temples respectively from May 26 to June 6, said an ANI report. They will be responsible for ensuring arrangements for the smooth conduct of the Yatra.