Amarnath ice-lingam may disappear in a few days

AMARNATH (J&K): The naturally formed ice-lingam at the holy cave shrine of Amarnath has shrunk to one-tenth of its size after a rapid melt-down and may disappear in a few days if the mercury continues to rise, a top shrine official said on Wednesday.

"It (the ice-lingam) has shrunk to one-tenth of the size and may last just several days if mercury continue to shoot up," Director of the holy cave NK Raina told visiting reporters here.

Raina, however, said it is a normal phenomenon. Weather affects the shape and size of the icelingam.

Raina said due to rising temperature around the cave shrine the size and height of the lingam has reduced considerably.

Nearly 12-foot ice lingam had been formed in the 200 cubic-meter cave on June 9 but had reduced to 1/10 of its size today. It may not last for more time because of the heat, he said.

Raina, however, said that the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) expected over four lakh devotees this year despite the lingam not withstanding the weather vagaries.

He said it has been witnessed in the past that the lingam does not exist on the Raksha Bandhan day.

The temperature in Srinagar has shown an upward trend in the past week and Wednesday's maximum temperature shot up to 32.5 degree Celisus making it the hottest day of the season so far, the met office said.

Today's (Wednesday) temperature was 32.5 degrees celisus - 2.5 degrees above normal, a spokesman of the weather office said.

He said even the minimum temperature rose to 20.1 degrees which is four degrees above normal.