The drop in the pilgrim footfall was attributed to the complete melting of the naturally formed ice-shivlingam at the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas

Over 3.85 lakh pilgrims have so far paid their obeisance at the shrine since the beginning of the 62-day-long yatra on July 1

The yatra is scheduled to end on 'Shravan Purnima' coinciding with Raksha Bandhan festival on August 31 with the holy mace of lord Shiva reaching the shrine

The 28th batch of pilgrims comprising 1,974 pilgrims, who also included 45 Sadhus and 16 Sadhvis, left Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu for Kashmir in a convoy of 85 vehicles escorted by security personnel between 3.30 am and 3.45 am, an official said

While 1,410 pilgrims are performing the yatra through the traditional 48-km Pahalgam track in Anantnag district, 564 others are heading for the 14-km Baltal route in Ganderbal district, they said