R K SINHA
Shall we take it now that accidents and mishaps would continue to happen at big religious congregations? Innocent people would continue to be trampled and burned in fire dying premature deaths. It looks like so at first glance. A major fire broke out at Kollam’s Puttingal Devi temple killing 110 people and injuring many more.
It all happened at wee hours – 3 a.m. when fireworks were going on to mark the celebrations. No permission was obtained to do fire work at the temple site. The fire balls and sparks flew past and hit the nearby godown storing fire crackers. All hell broke loose and people ran helter-skelter ending in loss of life.
The question arises is it impossible to control a crowd, certainly not. In most of such tragedies, people die because there are not enough exit points. The organizers must keep it in mind that the entry flow should slow and exit flow should be fast with more space and outlets.
Last year there were some other mishaps at religious places. The first incident took place in Andhra Pradesh when chief minister Chandra Babu Naidu went to take holy dip at Pushkaram fair. People present there rushed to see Naidu and his family members taking bath. It resulted in stampede killing many people.
The second incident took place at Sri Jagannath Temple in Odisha more than 15 lakh people had gathered to witness first ‘Navkalevar’ of this century. Because of poor crowd management, there was stampede in the Rathyatra. Two women devotees died and many others were injured. The same year many died at Devghar’s Baidyanath dham Shiva temple in Jharkhand.
It can be said with certainty that our administration have failed to control crowd over the years; still better to say that administration never tried to learn the basic points of managing huge gatherings.
1956 Kumbha at 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 Nehru went to take a dip at the Holy Sangam. People thronged to have a glimpse of Pandit Nehru. But an inquiry report had come to the conclusion that some Akaharas and Naga Sadhus got angry because Nehru had taken bath ahead of the Sadhus who created unrest. Elephants also ran berserk resulting in total stampede and loss of life at the Kumbh.
From time to time various inquiry reports put advisories asking VVIPs to refrain from visiting over crowded religious congregations. But our VVIPs never paid any heed to these advisories. Bir Bahadur Singh, the then Uttra Pradesh Chief Minister was responsible for the death of some 100 pilgrims when he visited the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar in 1986. At Allhabad Railway Station, some 150 people were killed in the stampede in 2013 Kumbh Mela.
If we look at the international scenario, such incidents happen in other countries as well. Some time back, more than 30 people were killed following clashes between the security forces and football lovers in a football match in Egypt after the security forces used tear gas shell to disperse the crowd resulting in the death of football fans. There is long list of violence and deaths in football matches.
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 few days after this incident there was stampede in 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.
I am of the firm view that the organizers of such events or the administration in charge of religious congregations must do planning and emergency provisions to handle big crows under crowd management. This can be done provided if the organisers and the administration have the will to do so. If the crowd management is followed strictly, such incidents can be managed and avoided to save precious human lives.