Jagannath Rath Yatra: Another Stampede

More than 2,000 people die on the suburban railways of Mumbai every year but because the problem is assumed to be unsolvable, the toll has become normalised. Stam­pedes in India are becoming similarly acceptable. On June 29, when three people died and over 50 were injured in Puri, Odisha, during the celebration of the Jagannath Rath Yatra festival, it marked the sixth major stampede of the year. And that was on top of Puri itself during this same festival witnessing a stampede last year.

Ironically, the one that happened this year was because of devotees gathering at night because they wanted to avoid the daytime crowds. Because many had the same idea, even during the early hours of the morning, it was a throng. And it only needed a prominent ritual that drew a bigger influx and some unexpected events, like vehicles entering the area that set off the stampede. By some social media accounts, the problem was exacerbated by a separate entrance for VIPs taking up space, crunching the crowd even further.

In the beginning of the year, on January 8, a stampede at Tirupati temple saw six dead. Later that month, on January 29, another religious gathering, the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, saw a stampede claim more than 30 lives. This was followed by one, two weeks later at New Delhi railway station, and affected pilgrims going to the Kumbh Mela. Eighteen died. On May 3, a festival at a temple in North Goa led to a stampede that saw six deaths. And on June 4, after the Indian Premier League final was won by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, a victory procession led to 11 people dying.

Most stampedes in India, it becomes clear, are connected to religious festivals because they draw enormous numbers. It is a mode for ordinary Indians to express faith and also find relief from their daily tedium by being part of such occasions away from home. It is tragic that the authorities have still not brought in modern crowd organisation mechanisms despite the high probability of a stampede in almost every such major religious event.

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