DEHRADUN: Ever since the yatra to the four Himalayan shrines — Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath — began on April 18, as many as 33 pilgrims have died, mostly due to heart attacks.In fact, in the past three days, six deaths were registered from these shrines located in Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts. Of the six deaths, three were reported from Badrinath, two from Kedarnath and one from Yamunotri.Till now the highest number of deaths have been reported from Kedarnath (18), followed by Badrinath (9) and Yamunotri (6).Two women from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, died in Yamunotri and Kedarnath shrine while the remaining pilgrims (all men) who died were from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana.In all, maximum 26 pilgrims died due to Myocardial Infarction (MI) commonly known as heart attack followed by cardiac arrests, the second leading cause of pilgrim deaths this year. Health department officials said that most of the patients were declared brought dead at the health facilities, however, the symptoms as stated by the guardians indicates MI or cardiac arrest as the prime reason of death.Dr Tripti Bahuguna, said, “We have released advisory for elderly and sick people to not take part in the yatra considering the risks involved, however, the pilgrims are still going ahead with the yatra.”Officials said that this year the influx of tourist is much higher than any other year since the Kedarnath tragedy.Dr SK Jha, CMO of Rudraprayag district, said, “Overall we have higher influx of pilgrims this year. Around 2.85 lakh devotes have already visited Kedarnath, 2.25 lakh pilgrims have visited Badrinath, and Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines have registered 1.65 lakh footfall. Considering the footfall, the health department is doing pretty well and we are hopeful that pilgrims those are unwell would refrain from taking up the yatra.”

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