Jammu, Jan 2 (IANS): In 2022, over 91 lakh pilgrims visited the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi located in Katra, the highest in the last nine years.

And on Saturday, the last day of 2022, as many as 23,000 devotees visited the shrine.

The CEO of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Anshul Garg, said, "A total of 91.25 lakh devotees had 'darshan' at the 'Gupha' of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi in 2022, which is the highest fihures since online yatra registration was launched in 2013."

According to the data issued by the the shrine board, 23,110 pilgrims performed darshan at the shrine on the last day of 2022.

Last year, the highest turnout of 11.29 lakh pilgrims was recorded in June, while the lowest numbers were 3.61 lakh in February.

It may be noted that 12 pilgrims were killed and 16 were left injured in a stampede at the Vaishno Devi shrine on January 1 last year, yet more than 4.38 lakh people visited the shrine in the same month.

Similarly, the shrine recorded devotee fottfals of 7.78 lakh in March, 9.02 lakh in April, 9.86 lakh in May, 9.07 lakh in July, 8.77 lakh in August, 8.28 lakh in September, 7.51 lakh in October and 6.01 lakh in November.

In 2012, the number of devotees visiting the holy shrine had reached 1.04 crore.