Hathras Tragedy | Has India Become the Epicentre of Man-made Catastrophes?

While inadequate forecasting of the anticipated crowd is a factor, the organisers also deliberately tend to underplay the attendance in order to obtain permissions easily.

(Image: PTI)

The deadly stampede in Fulrai village of Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district (2 July; 121 dead, including 112 women and 7 children) in the ‘satsang’ organised by Suraj Pal (aka Narayan Sakar Hari or 'Bhole Baba') isn’t an isolated incident but stands preceded by a long list of stampedes particularly during religious or godmen-centred gatherings (I have curated a list at the end of this article).

Clearly, in India, life is cheap. The country witnesses such tragedies on a regular basis, and yet, there are many reasons why these recur with alarming frequency.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) published a comprehensive guide entitled Managing Crowds at Events and Venues of Mass Gatherings for State Governments, Local Authorities, Administrators and Organisers in 2014. Yet, a day after the Hathras tragedy, UP government minister Asim Arun stated that the state government has started work on SOPs to prevent such incidents in future.

Incidentally, during my long years in the NDMA, I assisted multiple administrations in preparing for mass gatherings like the Kumbh Mela, the Sri Amarnathji Yatra, and the 550th Birth Anniversary Celebration of Guru Nanak Devji, etc and there is a huge body of good practices on that subject available for anyone who’s interested.

Most of our revered places of worship are at least a century old, and back then, the size of crowds that would throng them in the 20th and 21st centuries couldn’t be cognised. Add to this the construction of shops and other structures which further constrict the space around such places of worship. The recipe for a disaster is ready.

The sense of helplessness among the underprivileged sections of society tends to make them cling to religiosity, hoping to alleviate their plight – and most godmen are really good at selling a heady blend of that hope. Preliminary investigations attribute the stampede to the pandemonium caused by a rush to collect the ‘soil touched by Bhole Baba’s feet’.

People follow such 'godmen' because they often fill the void left by the administration, for e.g., Baba Ram Rahim ran schools and small hospitals, provided minor employment, etc, all of which offered cover for his nefarious activities.

The aim of most such Babas is to enrich themselves. Hence, in most events, the organisers tend to usually outsource them as “voluntary work” to outsiders. Even where contractors are utilised, the workmanship is shoddy and there is no realisation that poorly insulated wires, over-loaded electrical circuits, etc, can prove deadly in a tented colony. Entry-exit corridors cannot be mere, contiguous narrow lanes with no emergency evacuation lanes in between. Frail barriers will not hold crowds.

While inadequate forecasting of the anticipated crowd is a factor, the organisers also deliberately tend to underplay the total strength in order to obtain permissions easily, after which the administration is caught off-guard. In the case of Hathras, the organisers of the event had sought permission for 80,000 people, but around 2.5 lakh turned up.

Uncontrolled access to the event, lack of marshals and public address systems (the latter play an important role in quelling rumours and stabilising a restive crowd), the absence of holding areas before an entrance(s); entrances and exits not opening to wider access; uncontrolled parking and movement of vehicles for VIPs, are all factors which contribute to such tragedies.

The distribution of ‘freebies’, the arrival of a VIP and the associated rush to catch a glimpse or obtain a darshan can easily trigger a surge and ‘crush’ an anxious and competitive crowd.

Sub-optimal security deployment astride queues, inadequate briefing of security personnel on crowd-control measures, the paucity of structured communications networks, the absence or flawed composition of response groups, absence of rehearsals prior to the event, are other issues that catalyse a stampede.

Here is a list of stampedes in the last 20 years that were caused during religious gatherings and events.

• January 2005: 340 devotees were killed and several hundred others injured in a stampede at the Mandhardevi temple in Wai town, Maharashtra.

• August 2008: 145 died at Naina Devi temple, Himachal Pradesh after rumours of a landslide triggered a stampede.

• September 2008: 250 devotees were killed in the stampede at Chamundagar temple in Rajasthan.

• March 2010: 63 pilgrims (over half were children) died from among the crowd that had lined up for free food and clothing at Ram Janki temple, Pratapgarh district, UP.

• January 2011: At least 104 Sabarimala devotees died and over 40 were injured in a stampede after a jeep crashed into pilgrims at Pulmedu, Idukki district, Kerala.

• November 2011: Over 20 were killed in a stampede at Har-ki-Pauri ghat in Haridwar.

• November 2012: Around 20 people died and several were injured during the Chhath Puja at Adalat Ghat, Patna, after a makeshift bridge on the river Ganga broke, triggering a stampede.

• February 2013: 36 devotees from among those who had come to attend the Kumbh Mela, died in the stampede at Prayagraj train station after officials announced a last-minute change in the train platform.

• October 2013: 115 died and over a hundred were injured in a stampede at the Ratangarh temple in Datia, Madhya Pradesh. The stampede was triggered by rumours that a river bridge the devotees were crossing was about to collapse.

• October 2014: 32 people were killed, and 26 others injured in a stampede at Gandhi Maidan, Patna, as Dussehra celebrations ended.

• July 2015: 27 were killed in a stampede at a major bathing site along River Godavari in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh.

• October 2016: at least 24 killed and 20 injured in the stampede on a crowded bridge to an ashram in Varanasi, UP. The organizers had expected 3,000 devotees at the ceremony, but more than 70,000 thronged the religious event.

• September 2017: 23 people lost their lives with over 40 being injured in the stampede on a narrow foot-bridge in Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road suburban railway station

• January 2022: 12 devotees died in a stampede at Vaishno Devi temple, J&K.

• March 2023: Over 36 people died when a slab atop an ancient well collapsed during a 'havan' programme being conducted at a temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

The recurring stampedes, and the infrastructure and climate disasters raise a question: has India become the epicentre of man-made catastrophes, with no end in sight? And after each tragedy and disaster, there are ‘high-level’ visits by political leaders and high-ranking bureaucrats, during which officials assiduously and slavishly point out what had transpired; FIRs are recorded; investigations are ordered; ‘compensation’ is also announced for the families of the victims (which is also a way of ensuring they do not rake the issue further), and there are suggestions of lofty lessons being learnt for the future.

And after all that, life goes on for the administrations, till the next man-made disaster.

(Kuldip Singh is a retired Brigadier from the Indian Army. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)