S.N. Verma
In the last few years, stampede incidents have increased rapidly in India and abroad. In India, stampede incidents have occurred at most religious places. Apart from this, news of deaths due to stampede at railway stations, during speeches of Sadhu Saints and politicians also keep coming, the scene of which is heart-rending and heart-wrenching.
Whereas in foreign countries, incidents of stampede are heard in music concerts, stadiums and night clubs. The safety and security of tourists including the management of crowd and arrival of tourists at tourist places is mainly the responsibility of the state government, while the responsibility of controlling the crowd in private and religious programs lies with the organizers and local administration. But due to lack of proper security arrangements and lack of understanding of the crowd management system, stampedes keep occurring.
In India, stampedes occur at religious places during special pujas or festivals when the crowd becomes uncontrolled and devotees fall on the stairs or at the places of worship. Last year, during a sermon by a baba, the crowd became uncontrolled in the rush to get his blessings and more than a hundred people died in the stampede. The latest example is the stampede that occurred during the Shri Lerai Jatra (yatra) in Shirgaon, Goa on Friday night in which about 7 devotees died. More than 50 people were injured in the accident. On Friday evening, a large number of devotees were going towards the temple to participate in the jatra. During this time, some people fell after getting electrocuted by an electric wire in front of a shop. Then there was chaos and a stampede. The accident occurred due to lack of adequate arrangements for crowd management.
In the last few months, stampedes occurred at Kumbh Mela and New Delhi Railway Station. Before this, in the year 2015, 71 people died in a stampede at Baidyanath Temple in Deoghar, Jharkhand. In the same year, 32 devotees died in a stampede on the first day of Maha Pushkar fair in Rajmundri. In the year 2014, 32 people died due to stampede during Dussehra celebrations at Garhi Maidan in Patna. In the year 2013, 115 devotees lost their lives in a stampede at Mata Temple in Ratangarh, Madhya Pradesh. Talking about foreign countries, 2300 people died in Mecca in September 2015 and 1500 people died in a stampede during a football match in Turin in June 2017. There are many examples of stampede, it is not possible to describe all of them here. Stampede refers to a situation in which on some occasion people run fast in one direction in an uncontrolled manner due to some fear or terror. To save their lives, people running fast start running in a particular direction without thinking about anything. The aim of the people running is to get away from that place, they do not care about the route. And they do not know where they have to reach by running. This uncontrolled running situation is called stampede. Such a situation arises when the crowd at a particular place increases beyond its capacity. During a stampede, people running collide with each other and fall on each other or collide with each other, due to which many times people die by getting crushed. The reason for this is that many times people run away by stepping on the fallen people. According to a report, out of all the major stampede incidents in the country and the world, about 79 percent of the cases occurred during religious events. Most of the chaos occurs due to rumors. In this, people gathering the crowd need to be cautious. The most vulnerable people in a stampede are women, children and old people.
Stampede can be prevented if crowd management is controlled. If those who are organising the event have accurate information about the size of crowd and the pressure of people on a particular place and better arrangements are made, then the accident can be controlled. There are many ways by which the crowd can be controlled. The pressure of the crowd can be reduced by making them stand in a line. In case of a stampede, there should be an alternate route and there should be proper arrangements for the arrival of VVIP guests. The crowd can be controlled by putting up barricades and making a snake line approach. These are the ways by which the effect of stampede can be neutralised. If the arrangements were in the hands of skilled and experienced officers during the Kumbh Mela, then a stampede situation would not have occurred. The devotees were waiting for the bathing time by reaching the designated place at night and then were crushed by the crowd that came later.
If big programs of politicians, storytellers and so-called religious gurus are organized in big grounds, then the possibility of stampede is reduced. The place should be selected according to the seating arrangement or proper arrangement for people to stand. Security personnel should give correct information at the right time in the event and keep giving directions if necessary. Entry and exit should be safe, crowd should not be allowed there. Do not let people stop unnecessarily and do not allow more people to be taken out at once. Emergency exit should be arranged so that if needed, people can be taken out through an alternative route. Proper lighting is necessary. There should be proper arrangement of security personnel and the third instruction should be issued if needed. In case of any kind of rumor, correct information should be provided with immediate effect.
[10:50 pm, 06/05/2025] Verma S N: To avoid this problem, thematic circuits have been identified and projects have been approved by the Government of India under Swadesh Darshan 1.0. With the efforts of the Ministry of Tourism, state governments and union territories of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh have deployed tourist police in some form or the other.
(The author is a freelance journalist and columnist)
