Jammu: Hundreds of Hindu pilgrims will undertake a 6-day long pilgrimage through serpentine mountain tracks to the Kashmirs high altitude Kausar Nag lake from July 24. Many Hindus associate the lake with Lord Vishnu.
The pilgrimage to Kausar Nag will begin from July 24, Deputy Commissioner (DC), Reasi, Ravinder Kumar said.
The yatra to Kausar Nag lake, situated in the Kulgam district of volatile south Kashmir, was launched by a group of Kashmiri Pandits in 2010 from the Reasi district in Jammu region.
Kumar said the yatris, after stay at base camp at village Harshu in Mahore tehsil of Reasi district, would proceed for Kausar Nag and pay obeisance on July 30, the day on which Nag Panchmi’ is observed.
The Army and other security agencies will ensure area deployment and security for an incident-free pilgrimage to the shrine, he said.
The DC said that efforts would be made to promote Kausar Nag as a major pilgrim tourist destination.
For the purpose, he asked the Tourism Department to chalk out a strategy to give wide publicity to the Yatra. This should be done by erecting hoarding at prominent locations, to attract the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims, he suggested.
In July 2014, a controversy had erupted when a group of Kashmiri Pandits announced the yatra from Kulgam district.
This led to protests in the Valley, especially in the Kulgam district against the conduct of the yatra.
The then state home secretary Suresh Kumar later said that there is no traditional yatra held at Kausar Nag but only a puja.
Kausar Nag is a large lake nestled deep inside the snow capped mountains of Pir-Panjal in south Kashmirs Shopian district, approximately 145 kilometers from the summer capital of Kashmir, Srinagar.
The lake is the source of the Veshu, a tributary of the Jhelum river, which supplies water to large swathes of South Kashmir. Along this tributary falls the famed Aharbal waterfall.
Many adventure lovers also trek to this second largest high altitude lake in the valley with an area of 110 hectares.
An on-foot journey would take two days to reach the Lake from Aharbal, the famous tourist destination in Shopian.
Kausar Nag is surrounded by peaks on all sides and is over 4000 metres above sea level.
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