Amarnath land row, Mumbai attacks hit Vaishnodevi Yatra

JAMMU: The two-month Amarnath land row and the Mumbai attacks hit the Vaishnodevi pilgrimage in Jammu and Kashmir in 2008 with a drop of more than six lakh pilgrims as compared to the year before.
    
"There was a fall of 6.45 lakh pilgrims as only 67.66 lakh pilgrims visited the cave shrine in 2008 as compared to 2007," a official of the Shri Mata Vaishnovdevi Shrine Board
said.

He attributed the fall in numbers to the two-month long Amarnath land row and the Mumbai attacks.

"The two-month long row and continuous shutdown made pilgrim flow very less," the official said.

He added that the Mumbai blasts also saw a dip in the number of pilgrims.

"There was a record created by the pilgrim turnout till July 2008 at 11.11 lakh as compared to 9.57 lakh in 2007. But after July it went down," he said.