In a shocking incident at least nine pilgrims, including a woman, died in a stampede at the yearly Ganga Sagar Mela on Sunday around 6 pm, police said.
The pilgrims, who had gathered at the river banks to take a holy dip, were rushing to board the mainland-bound vessels to reach Kolkata, said the South 24 Parganas District magistrate, adding heavy rush caused suffocation deaths.
Navy divers had been pressed into service to find out whether any of the victims had fallen to their death in the Buri Ganga River. lakhs of people assemble at Ganga Sagar to take a holy dip at the confluence of Ganga and the Sea — Bay of Bengal — on Makar Sankranti.
“It seems that the pilgrims were rushing to catch the vessels ahead of the high tide so that they could cross the river on time to reach Kolkata,” a senior official said.
The State Government immediately announced Rs2 lakh for the kin of the dead and Rs50,000 for the injured, sources at State secretariat said.
This year about 16 lakh people had taken the holy dip at Ganga Sagar — historically considered one of the most difficult pilgrimages — on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, said Bengal Public Health and Rural Engineering Minister Subroto Mukherjee, who supervised the fair.