All in a day’s work: Flood of pilgrims, a protest, and death

For Sharma, that means managing an additional 15,000 pilgrims at a base camp that has place only for 15,000. With telephone networks suspended, the walkie-talkie is Sharma’s only line of communication, and he speaks into it constantly, arguing with security agencies and board officials so that the pilgrims who have completed their yatra can be sent back the same night and he can make space for the next batch.

The issue is still unresolved, but Sharma’s attention is now focused on another problem — a pony jam at a place called Brasi Top, which is holding up 5,000 pilgrims from descending. The trek, tough enough in the daytime, is even more difficult in the dark. Pilgrims are not allowed to go from base camp to the Amarnath cave after 8.30 pm, but pilgrims are descending until well after midnight. “How do we ensure they return safely?” Sharma is seen asking his colleagues.

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Between the back and forth on his walkie-talkie comes bad news: two pilgrims have likely suffered heart attack en route from the cave to Baltal. Ambulances had to be organised to take them to Baltal hospital.

“The health concerns of the pilgrims bother me. We want everyone to return home safe,” says Sharma, who stays at Baltal in a makeshift fibre-and-aluminium hut for the entire duration of the yatra. Baltal gets 20 feet of snow during the season.

Finally, there is an air of relief in the director’s office. Security agencies have allowed the movement of pilgrims out of Baltal. Sharma’s next challenge is to ensure the convoys are sent out smoothly.

Back in the director’s office, news is coming that the first convoy has been attacked with stones by protesters soon after it left the parking area. Windowpanes of some buses and cars have been broken. Sharma now has to regulate the outgoing traffic.

A few hours later, pilgrims riding two of these buses narrated the incident at a stopover in Banihal. “We had just dozed off after the trek. Suddenly there was a thud and a stone hit our windowpane,” says Usha, from Kapurthala. But the buses sped away from the scene.

Sharma later said that he managed to clear the last buses by about 1 am. After a long day’s work, the director retired at 1.30 am only to be woken up at 3.30 am to be told that the two pilgrims who had suffered cardiac arrest and were taken to hospital had both died. He knew what he had to do next: inform the families and make arrangements for airlifting the bodies, even as the next lot of pilgrims had to be sent up and brought back. Even before daybreak, the to-do list for the morning was building up.