Char Dham registrations cross 50 lakh in 2026, with Kedarnath and Badrinath alone recording over 30 lakh darshans

Haridwar operator publishes a sixteen-year dataset covering pilgrim numbers, route distances, costs and safety, and makes it free to use

Char Dham Yatra registrations for the 2026 season crossed 50 lakh by 13 August, according to Uttarakhand Tourism figures. Kedarnath and Badrinath alone had recorded 30,62,228 darshans by 11 August — 16,12,112 at Kedarnath and 14,50,116 at Badrinath — with the two shrines together taking more than ₹74.5 crore in offerings and revenue.

The pace was set early. More than 17.8 lakh pilgrims had completed registration by mid-April, before the Badrinath doors opened on 23 April, making it the busiest booking window in five years.

What the headline numbers obscure is that the yatra now runs straight through the monsoon rather than pausing for it. On 6 July 2026, 13,254 pilgrims visited the shrines despite heavy rain — 5,892 at Badrinath, 3,124 at Kedarnath, 1,983 at Gangotri and 2,151 at Hemkund Sahib. The 2026 season runs 208 days, from 19 April to 13 November.

Shiv Ganga Travels has published a consolidated statistics page covering 2010 to 2026 — pilgrim numbers, route distances, cost breakdowns, hotel booking patterns and safety data — cross-referenced against Uttarakhand Tourism, Devasthanam Board and Char Dham Yatra Authority notifications. The company is making the dataset available to news organisations without charge.

“The monsoon numbers are the ones that should be getting attention. Thirteen thousand people on the shrines in a single day of heavy rain is not what this yatra looked like ten years ago, and the infrastructure conversation has not caught up with it.”

“We have been running this route since 2010, including the years after 2013 when almost nobody came. Operators sit on that data and do nothing with it. It is more useful to a reporter than it is to us.”

Figures in this release

Referenced pages