A pre-dawn stampede at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh early on Wednesday claimed 30 lives and left 60 others injured. The stampede occurred as millions of pilgrims jostled for space to take a holy dip on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya, one of the most auspicious days in the Hindu calendar.
Here are the top 10 updates about the Maha Kumbh stampede:
- The devotees, wanting to take ‘Amrit snan’, started converging on the Sangam nose since 7.35 pm on Tuesday, when the mahurat for Mauni Amavasya began. The crowd build-up at the Sangam nose turned into a sea of humanity by 2 am on Wednesday.
2. Everything was going on as planned till around 2am, when the Sangam nose was almost packed with pilgrims with virtually no space for the exit for those who had taken the holy dip. The stampede took place when religious fervour was at its peak between 2 am-2.30 am and an unprecedented crowd turned up at the Sangam nose, making it unmanageable for the Mela administration. Ambulances were rushed to ferry the injured and deceased to the Central Hospital at Mahakumbh Nagar.
3. According to eyewitness accounts, one of the main causes of the tragedy was the sudden surge of pilgrims at the Sangam, all eager to take the holy dip at 3 am, the start of the auspicious hour.
4. After the stampede, the Amrit snan, the traditional bathing ritual of akharas, was postponed but resumed in the afternoon. Bathing for devotees continued at the tightly packed Sangam and other ghats along the Ganges, though they were less crowded.
5. Several hours after the incident Maha Kumbh DIG Vaibhav Krishna provided the casualty details at a press conference in the evening. “The incident occurred due to the pressure of the crowd. The crowd broke through barricades and jumped to the other side, crushing those who were waiting there. Over 90 injured people were rushed to the hospital, of whom 30 have died,” he said.
6. The officer confirmed that 25 of the deceased had been identified, including four from Karnataka and one each from Assam and Gujarat.
7. DIG Krishna stated that barricades had been placed in the mela and akhara areas to manage crowd flow, but they gave way under the pressure of the jostling crowds. “As the barricades broke, people fell on those sitting and waiting to take the holy dip during the ‘brahm muhurt’ (the early morning time considered auspicious for certain activities),” he explained.
8. Officials said that over 7.5 crore million devotees took part in the holy dip on Wednesday, reports news agency PTI.
9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in the stampede, calling the tragedy “extremely saddening”.
10. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced the formation of a three-member judicial commission, comprising Justice Harsh Kumar, former DG VK Gupta, and retired IAS VK Singh, to investigate the cause of the stampede. He also declared an ex gratia payment of ₹25 lakh for each of the deceased’s families.”It is important to get to the bottom of how such a tragedy occurred,” a visibly emotional Adityanath said, adding that the chief secretary and DGP would visit the Maha Kumbh on Thursday for an in-depth investigation into the tragic incident.