Char Dham Yatra Registration

Before you set out for Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath or Badrinath, every pilgrim in your group has to be registered with the Government of Uttarakhand. This is not a formality anyone can wave away. The state's own portal puts it plainly: "As per the Government of Uttarakhand travel policy, it is necessary to register yourself and your vehicles before you start your journey to Char Dham and Hemkund Sahib."

The portal is registrationandtouristcare.uk.gov.in, run by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board. Its FAQ notes that registration has been compulsory since 2014, and that once the process is complete each yatri is issued a QR code on a Yatra Registration Letter.

There is no fee. The portal calls it, in its own words, "this free exercise". If anyone asks you for money simply to obtain a registration, that money is not reaching the government.

Why it exists is worth understanding rather than resenting. The portal gives its own reason: registration helps with better monitoring and control of pilgrim inflow, which it says makes the journey safer for everyone. Showing your QR code at a dham also helps you get assistance with food and lodging along the way.

The temples themselves are administered separately. Kedarnath and Badrinath are in the care of the Shri Badarinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), constituted under a 1939 Act, and BKTC's own site asks pilgrims to complete their yatra registration on the same state portal.

Registration is quick when the details are in front of you and slow when you are hunting for them. This is what the portal asks for:

Two things surprise most families. First, every traveller is registered individually — a grandmother, a child, a driver: each one is a separate pilgrim entry, added one at a time. Second, each dham is entered separately, with its own visit date. A four-dham yatra is not a single tick-box; it is four dated entries inside one trip.

You also do not have to be the person travelling. The portal explicitly supports registration by self, family, or tour operator — which is how we do it for the families who travel with us.

The portal takes you through three stages, in this order:

1. Register or log in. Click REGISTER/LOGIN on the portal. A new user signs up; a returning user signs in with the mobile number and password already created.
2. Create your tour. Enter your start and end dates, the number of travellers, the dhams you are visiting, and the date you plan to be at each one.
3. Add the pilgrims. Enter each traveller with their ID details, then add your vehicle if you are driving. When the trip is complete, download the Yatra Registration Letter and carry it with you.

The same flow is available in the official Tourist Care Uttarakhand mobile app on Android and iOS, if a phone is easier for you than a browser.

Then keep the letter safe. Save the PDF and print a copy as well — mobile signal in the Garhwal valleys is not something to depend on. Verification counters sit at the entry gate of every dham — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib — and that is where your QR code is scanned.

If the site feels slow, that is usually load rather than failure; the portal's own advice is to wait a few minutes and try again, and afterwards to print the application so you can be sure it saved.

Online is not the only way in. The state runs four modes of registration: the web portal, the mobile app, physical registration centres, and Yatri Mitra — support staff placed along the route to register people who cannot manage the other three.

The portal lists registration centres on the route as well as at the dhams themselves. In the lists it has published, these have included Haridwar (Rahi hotel and the railway station), Rishikesh (ISBT and the Gurdwara), Barkot, Dharasu Band, Janki Chatti, Hina in Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Karanprayag, Guptkashi, Phata, Sonprayag, Gaurikund, Joshimath, Govindghat and Pandukeshwar, along with all four dhams and the Hemkund Sahib entrance. The exact list is refreshed each season, so check the portal before you rely on any one counter.

Online registration closes a few days before the end of the yatra season, but offline, on-the-spot registration continues until the last day of the yatra. And if you have already set out having forgotten entirely, you can still register while travelling — through the portal or at a centre — before you reach a dham.

The state's yatra helpline is 1364, toll-free within Uttarakhand, or +91 135 1364 from other states. For a medical emergency on the route, call 108; the health advisory also lists 104 for medical help.

Every Char Dham shrine stands above 2,700 metres. The Uttarakhand Health Department's advisory, published through the same portal, is blunt about what that means for a body used to the plains: extreme cold, low humidity, harsh ultraviolet radiation, low air pressure and low oxygen.

How much walking each dham actually asks of you:

The advisory's framing is Plan, Prepare, Pack:

• Plan at least seven days for the yatra so the body has time to acclimatise, and take 5–10 minute breaks every hour of trekking or every two hours of climbing by road.
• Prepare in the weeks before — a 20–30 minute walk daily and 5–10 minutes of breathing exercises. If you are over 55, or live with heart disease, asthma, hypertension or diabetes, get a health check-up first to confirm you are fit for the journey.
• Pack woollens, thermals, gloves and socks, rain gear, and a pulse oximeter and thermometer. Carry your regular medication, your test devices, and your home doctor's phone number.

On the route, get to a medical relief post, health centre or screening kiosk immediately if anyone in your group has chest pain, breathlessness that makes talking difficult, persistent coughing, dizziness or disorientation, vomiting, cold clammy skin, or weakness on one side of the body. The advisory also asks yatris to drink at least two litres of fluid a day and to avoid alcohol, caffeinated drinks, sleeping pills, strong painkillers and smoking through the yatra.

And one sentence worth repeating to an elder who insists: do not undertake the yatra if your doctor advises against it. If the full circuit is too much, the shorter Do Dham Yatra — Kedarnath and Badrinath — is a complete pilgrimage in its own right, and we plan it often for exactly this reason.

The 16 km climb from Gaurikund is why most families ask about the helicopter. Two things to know before you look at any operator's website.

First, yatra registration is a prerequisite. The booking system asks for your Yatra Registration Number, so the government registration has to be finished before you can even attempt a heli ticket — you enter a Group ID to book for several pilgrims, or an individual registration number for one.

Second, there is only one legitimate place to book online. IRCTC's portal states it directly: "Only IRCTC HeliYatra website (heliyatra.irctc.co.in) provides online helicopter ticket booking for Shri Kedarnath Dham & Shri Hemkund Sahib." IRCTC is a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Railways. Any other site selling you a Kedarnath heli seat online is not the official channel. The portal is heliyatra.irctc.co.in.

Booking is also capped: a single user ID can hold a maximum of two tickets with up to six passengers on each — twelve people in all. A larger group needs a second booker ID.

Seats are limited, and IRCTC opens, pauses and resumes booking by its own notices — its site asks passengers to keep checking for updates. We will not promise you a seat we do not hold. What we will do is tell you honestly, before you commit to your dates, what the realistic options are.

This page is about the paperwork. The yatra itself — the traditional sequence from Yamunotri to Badrinath, the season, road and helicopter itineraries, and all our packages — lives on the Char Dham Yatra hub. If four dhams is more than your dates or your family's stamina allow, the Do Dham Yatra covers Kedarnath and Badrinath.

Kapat dates are fixed afresh every year, and the registration portal publishes them dham by dham once they are set — for 2026 it lists 19 April for Yamunotri and Gangotri, 22 April for Kedarnath and 23 April for Badrinath, with the season running on into October or November. Registration for a season opens once the government announces that year's yatra commencement dates. We do not print dates we have not seen confirmed by the temple committees; ask us on WhatsApp and we will tell you what is actually announced for your travel month.