Tragedies keep happening during religious festivals across the country, either due to poor crowd management or negligence. This must end
Shall we take it now that accidents and mishaps will continue to happen at big religious congregationsIJ Innocent people will continue to be trampled and burnt by fire-breaksIJ A major fire broke out at Kollam's Puttingal Devi temple, killing more than 100 people and injuring many more. It all happened in the wee hours of 3 am when fireworks were going on to mark celebrations. No permission had been given for the pyrotechnics display at the temple site. The fire-balls and sparks flew past and hit a nearby godown that had stored fire-crackers. All hell broke loose, people were brunt — some charred to death beyond recognition.
The question that arises is: Is it impossible to control a crowd or fireworksIJ The answer, “Certainly not.” In most such tragedies, people die because there are not enough exit points. The organisers must keep it in mind that the entry flow should be slow and the exit flow must accomplish speed along with safety.
last year, there were some other mishaps at religious places. One incident took place in Andhra Pradesh when Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu went to take a holy dip at the Pushkaram fair. People present there rushed to see Naidu and his family members taking bath. It resulted in a stampede, killing many people.
A second incident took place at the Sri Jagannath Temple in Odisha. More than 15 lakh people had gathered to witness the first ‘Navkalevar' of this century. Because of poor crowd management, there was a stampede during the Rath Yatra. Two women devotees died and several others were injured. The same year, many died at the Devghar's Baidyanath Dham Shiva temple in Jharkhand.
It can be said with certainty that administrations have failed to manage crowds over the years; it’s more appropriate to say that administrations never tried to learn the basics of managing huge gatherings from a safety perspective.
The 1956 Kumbh in Allahabad was marred by stampede that killed more than 800 pilgrims. It was said that the crowd went out of control that day, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru went to take a dip at the holy Sangam. People thronged to have a glimpse of Nehru. But an inquiry report came to the conclusion that some Akaharas and Naga sadhus had got angry because Nehru had taken bath ahead of the sadhus, and created unrest. Elephants also ran berserk, resulting in a stampede and loss of life.
From time to time, various inquiry panel reports put advisories asking VVIPs to refrain from visiting over-crowded religious congregations. But our VVIPs have never paid any heed to these advisories. The then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Veer Bahadur Singh’s visit to the Kumbh mela at Haridwar in 1986 led to an unruly situation in which some 100 people died. At the Allahabad railway station, some 150 people were killed in the stampede in the 2013 Kumbh.
If we look at the international scenario, such incidents happen in other countries as well. Some time ago, more than 30 people were killed following clashes between security forces and football lovers during a football match in Egypt, after the security forces used tear-gas shell to disperse the crowd, resulting in the death of many football fans. There is, of course, a long list of violence and deaths during football tournaments.
last year, in September, many pilgrims who visited the Mecca shrine, perished in two separate incidents. Many Haj yatris who had gathered from all over the world, died when a huge crane collapsed and fell on the crowd. Just a few days after this incident, there was a stampede at the Mecca Masjid during a ritual known as ‘chasing the Satan', in which 850 people were killed. The list of such tragedies in the world is long.
(The writer is a Rajya Sabha MP)