Melting pot

The melting of the Shiva lingam in the Amarnath cave has created a bizarre situation where the object of veneration and the purpose of  pilgrimage —the ice Shiva lingam — has melted. It is being argued that it is the rush of hundreds of thousands pilgrims that has done the holy place in, which seems quite plausible though it may not be the only reason. Unsurprisingly, environmentalists are only too eager to chime in to say this is one more example of the looming  disaster of global warming. There is however more to the Amarnath story than generalisations and clichés.

Amarnath is not really an ancient holy place as many would assume. It was discovered through an accident by a Muslim shepherd a little more than a century ago. When Jawaharlal Nehru made the trip as he mentions in his Autobiography sometime in the early part of the last century, it was still not a popular pilgrimage. Over the last century, a few brave souls would walk from the Kashmir Valley side, through Pahalgam, Sheshnag and Panchtarni to reach Amarnath in the months of  July and August.

The numbers grew by humongous proportions — from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand — through the 1990s. During pilgrimage time, people from Jammu and other parts of north India would set up kitchens to serve the pilgrims, and the local traders looked forward to the annual event. The physical arduousness of the trek was relatively smoothened which led to greater numbers making the journey.

Most importantly however, the real problem is that the frail mountainsides — when the weather turns bad there are landslides — along which pilgrims have to wend their way to the cave cannot take the sheer physical pressure of hundreds of thousands of feet stomping along the way.

After the 1996 disaster, government-appointed Nitish Chakravarty committee had recommended the need to regulate the number of pilgrims to Amarnath. After a decade, it is shocking that greater numbers than ever are being allowed to go on the pilgrimage.

One of the old characteristics of a sacred spot is that it is  situated in the silent heart of wilderness, and Amarnath cave was that. Sacredness needs to be restored to the cave and it needs to be given space to breathe. Since in matters of faith control is a sensitive matter, banning entry to the cave will be neither feasible nor advisable.

It may be more sensible to restrict access to a number of pilgrims every year and thus allow the cave time to recover.