JAMMU, Aug. 19 -- The three-day Kailash Kund Yatra, scheduled to start in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district on Wednesday, was curtailed to symbolic rituals this year owing to recent cloudburst incidents and inclement weather forecast, a senior government official said on Tuesday. Doda Deputy Commissioner Harvinder Singh requested the intending pilgrims not to make any attempt to join the annual yatra which is usually drawing thousands of devotees from within and outside the Union Territory.
The pilgrimage to 14,700 feet high Kailash Kund is considered as one of the toughest as pilgrims have to trek 18 km steep Kailash mountain range to pay their obeisance at the high altitude temple, where they take a dip in the ice-cold lake called 'Kund'...