Dehradun: This year’s Char Dham Yatra witnessed the highest turnout in the past six years, with over 27.6 lakh pilgrims visiting the revered shrines in the Garhwal Himalayas. According to figures released by Uttarakhand police on Wednesday, 27,69,508 pilgrims visited the four shrines – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri — during this season.During last year’s yatra, a footfall of 23,24,158 pilgrims was recorded, which is 4,45,350 less pilgrims than this year.While portals of all three shrines have closed for winter, devotees can still visit Badrinath and the total pilgrim numbers may rise further.Speaking to TOI, Ashok Kumar, additional director general (ADG) law and order, said, “This year, we have witnessed highest footfall at Kedarnath and Gangotri since 2012.” He added that Kedarnath had witnessed a sudden fall in pilgrim footfall after the flash floods of 2013. In 2014, the shrine saw its worst turnout with only 40,832 pilgrims. However, since the past couple of years, the numbers started rising and this year, the shrine was visited by a record number of pilgrims. Officials at the Kedarnath shrine, too, termed this year’s yatra as the “most successful one in recent years”.Of the four dhams pilgrims visit as a part of the Char Dham yatra, Badrinath received the highest footfall of 10,35,019 this season. This was followed by Kedarnath with 7,32,241 devotees, and Gangotri and Yamunotri with 4,47,585 and 3,94,394 pilgrims respectively.The portals of the Kedarnath and Yamunotri shrines were both closed on November 9, while the Gangotri temple’s portals closed a day prior to that.

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