Char Dham Yatra Ex-Delhi 2025

The Char Dham’s significance as a real place and an object of national Hindu religious imagination has significantly increased since 1950. The Char Dham has become an important destination for pilgrims from all over South Asia and the diaspora, particularly Bengalis, Marwaris, Odias, Marathi, Gujaratis, Delhites, and people from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, fueled by “religious tourism” and the rise of a conservative Hindu population compelled by sites that speak to the existence of an all-India Hindu culture. During the pilgrimage season, which typically begins around April 15 and lasts until Diwali (sometime in November), the circuit today attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. The season is heaviest in the two-month time frame before the storm, which regularly comes in late July. After the downpours start, travel to the destinations turns out to be very risky. Safety is a major concern even before the rains begin because the rocks have been severely destabilized by extensive road construction and heavy traffic, making fatal landslides and bus/jeep accidents common. Seasonal mortality rates frequently exceed 200. Some pilgrims visit the sites after the rains have stopped and before snow makes them impassable. It is said that the mountain scenery surrounding the shrines is most vivid after the rains have had a chance to moisten the dust of the plains below, despite the inhospitable temperatures in the early winter months of October and November.