By Sheikh Mushtaq

NUNWAN, India, June 30 (Reuters) - Heavy rains across India on Saturday left thousands of Hindu pilgrims stranded in Kashmir and disrupted public transport in Mumbai, while at least eight fishermen were feared drowned off the stormy southern coast.

Hindus camped out in forests after rains suspended one of India's most important pilgrimages, to a Himalayan cave shrine where devotees worship a phallus-shaped ice stalagmite seen as a symbol of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.

Every year thousands of Hindus trek along a treacherous mountain track to the Amarnath shrine, located at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,700 feet) where they worship the ice stalagmite.

Indian authorities in Kashmir have deployed tens of thousands of soldiers along the pilgrims' route, which crosses icy streams, goes around glacier-fed lakes and winds through snow-covered mountain passes.

The two-month long pilgrimage has often been targeted by Muslim rebels. Last year, over a dozen pilgrims were wounded in an attack.

Many pilgrims were already disappointed by news the stalagmite was melting fast -- due to what scientist said was both global warming and the body heat of huge crowds.

"I will wait as along as possible. At any cost I want to have a glimpse of Bhole Baba (Lord Shiva)," said 45-year-old Inder Mohan in a tented colony south of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital.

Off the coast of Andhra Pradesh state, at least eight fishermen from Myanmar and Thailand were feared drowned after two fishing trawlers sank in a tropical storm.

Over 50,000 people living in low lying areas of Andhra Pradesh state were shifted to safety during the storm.

The onset of the rainy season has brought severe weather to much of South Asia, killing more than 500 people in storms and floods in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan over the past week.

In India's financial hub of Mumbai on the western coast, officials warned residents not to venture from their homes until the evening as monsoon rains flooded streets and shanty towns.

"We are using public address systems to ask people to stay at home as much as possible," Mumbai civic chief Jairaj Pathak said.

Local train services, the transport lifeline of the crowded city, were suspended in many areas as water flooded the tracks.

Civic workers wearing yellow raincoats used crowbars and spades to open manholes to drain out storm water.

Local TV channels reported the army was on standby in some areas to help with evacuation.

In 2005, a week-long downpour killed hundreds of people and brought the city to a complete halt, exposing the inadequacies of its century-old drainage system and other civic infrastructure.

(Additional reporting by Prashant Mehra and Krittivas Mukherjee)

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