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| Stampedes - A Repeating Tragedy Demanding Action | | | Omkar Dattatray
India is the second populous country in the world and so stampedes off and on and consume the lives of the innocent people. The stampedes take place at religious places, Railway stations, public gatherings, gatherings of the people /devotees at shrines and eve at places where some self-styled Godmen give lectures and people assemble in large numbers. The stampedes are a cause of serious and grave public concern and stampedes should not happen and consume the precious lives of the people. We have heard about the most unfortunate and worrisome stampede at Mahakumbh at Prayajraj which took away the lives of a 30pilgrims and injury to 60 others. Hathras UP stampede was most unfortunate and it was serious in gravity and magnitude. It resulted in the deaths of 121 people and injuries to 150 people. Hathras crowd crush occurred on 2rd July 2024 at the conclusion of the Satsang organised by a self-styled god man. The unfortunate incident occurred when 2,50,000 people showed up for the event, which had permission for only 80,000 people. The godman was the saint Suraj Pal known as Bhola Baba. Government has conducted the investigation leading to the stampede but the godman has not been arrested and punished as he has high level political connections. A stampede at Prayajraj Maha Kumbh Mela on January 29,2025,resulted in at least 30 deaths and 60 injuries, The incident occurred during the Mauni Amavasaya day,a particularly auspicious day for taking a holy bath in the Sangam, the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Sawrswati. A large crowd had gathered and the collapse of barricades on Akhara Marg led to the stampede. The stampede occurred when several devotees tried to jump the barricades put up tom manage the crowds. The incident happened at Akhara Marg , which is used by ascetics to go in a procession to the river to take a holy dip. Again, a stampede occurred at New Delhi Railway Station. On February 15,2025,a crowd crush happened at New Delhi Railway station killing at least 16 people and injured 15 others. The crush occurred after some passengers began to slip on a footbridge above platform 14 and 15 ,causing a crushing pile of people to form in the already crowded station. It is very unfortunate and disturbing that New Delhi Railway station stampede occurred only after 16 days of the Mahakumbh Prayajraj stampede and it is a cause of concern. Every, time a stampede occurs the, government becomes active but after some time it forgets the stampede and a new stampede takes place. We are utterly failing in crowd management and mismanagement at the crowded places results in crowd crush and killing of the innocent people. We have to learn crowd management and all the people including devotees should be vigilant and careful and take every precaution to avoid rush and crowd so that crowd rush will not result in stampedes which cause loss of innocent lives. A stampede at M .Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s RCB, victory celebrations for the IPL 2025, resulted in 11 deaths and 71 injuries. The incident occurred on June 4,2025,as fans gathered to celebrate RCB’s win. A judicial commission report blamed the organizers ,including RCB Karnataka State Cricket Association KSCA,and an event management company for the tragedy. The report also criticised the police, including former Bengaluru city police commissioner B.Dayananda for their role in the incident. The stampede was triggered by a large and unruly crowd trying to enter the stadium during the victory celebration. A stampede on the pedestrian route to Mansa Devi temple near Harki Pauri claimed eight lives and injured 28 others, at least four critically on Sunday morning. More than 5000 devotees mainly from UP and Bihar were present on the route around 8.30 am at the time of the incident, which was possibly triggered by rumours of electrical wire causing electrocution. Eye witnesses claimed there were hardly any effort made to control the crowd. Reports of a high -voltage wire snapping and falling on the temple path triggered panic among the large crowd gathered for darshan, leading to chaos and a stampede -like situation. Thus, it was rumour of electric wire falling on the route which caused the stampede. In recent 356 period,there were nine reported stampedes in India. This information is based on a report from brut. India on Instagram. The report highlights that these incidents occurred within India and notes government responses to these tragedies. For example, after the Bengaluru stampede, the chief minister of Karnataka announced compensation and free medical treatment. Similarly, in Goa i stampede, the government cancelled state -supported events for three days. They say that prevention is better than cure and this applies too to the state of stampedes. The main and first thing is that all people including devotees, government, police, SDRF etc should take precaution and not allow a situation to develop which will result in chaos, stampede and loss of lives. So the first thing is that it is more important to take precautionary steps so that such situations do not arise which result in stampede and crowd mismanagement leading to loss of precious innocent lives. All the above stampedes show that preventive measures were not taken and thus there were stampedes which were very unfortunate. Besides post stampede mis-management were tardy as the administration is seen failing in its duty to prevent the stampede and later it is ineffective in handling post stampede situation. Thus the local and concerned civil and police administration cannot escape its responsibility of preventing the stampedes and then lessening the casualties and injuries .Therefore government must be up and doing and alive to mitigate the effects of crows rush so that much loss of life is avoided and for this the local civil, police and SDRF,NDRF and other related agencies should work in coordination to firstly prevent stampedes and consequent losses and when stampedes occur then also to lessen the losses and minimise the loss of lives. But in India all this is wanting and so we fail to prevent the stampedes and when it happens, then also fail to mitigate loss of human lives. It is very sad that stampedes in India have become routine happenings and after every stampede we become active and forget it after some time and other stampede happens. Let local the civil and police administration tighten its belt and take all necessary steps so that stampedes do not occur and if by chance it happens minimise the losses due to stampedes and in this lies the good of all. Otherwise, we will be compelled to say that ‘’Hukumat Nam Hai Sabe Zyida Behes Hona Ka.’’ |
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