Baltal, July 03: The 57- day-long annual Amarnath Yatra began on Friday July 03, as the first batch of pilgrims left the base camp in Baltal Ganderbal to start their journey to the 3880-metre-high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas. Amid heightened security arrangements, the first batch of pilgrims were flagged off by the Nodal Officer Baltal Rahul Yadav along with the DIG Maqsood Ul Zaman, Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal Jatin Kishore and SSP Ganderbal Sudhanshu Dhama in presence of senior civil and police officials. Although the light rainfall delayed it by an hour.