The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday announced the beginning of the Char Dham Yatra, one of Hinduism’s most significant pilgrimages that includes visits to Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
"Char Dham Yatra has begun, the portals of Gangotri, Yamunotri have opened. The entire country waits for this,” Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said. “For people of Uttarakhand, it is like a festival, all the preparations have been done. We want the yatra of people to be safe, easy, hassle-free. Arrangements have been made by various departments like traffic, police, transport, water, roads. We will be working to facilitate easy yatra for people."
Garhwal divisional commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said Tuesday that all arrangements for the Char Dham Yatra 2025 have been completed.
“We prayed to Goddess Ganga to make this yatra successful,” Pandey said.
Uttarakhand director general of police Deepak Kumar was quoted as saying that around 6,000 policemen would be deployed for the yatra and that drones would be used to monitor the situation.
“Apart from this, about 90 CCTV cameras have been installed at all four Dhams, a network of more than 200 CCTV cameras on the Char Dham route, and more than 300 CCTV cameras have been installed in Haridwar,” the Uttarakhand DGP said.
“Drones will be used to monitor the situation constantly… Social media is also being closely monitored,” he added.
The registrations for the Char Dham Yatra 2025 began Monday.