The sloping ground near the temple in Goa where a deadly stampede claimed six lives was accident-prone with a similar but minor incident reported in the past, an official said on Sunday as the condition of the critically injured victims remained stable.
Rituals continued at the Sree Lairai Devi temple at Shirgaon in North Goa district with hundreds of devotees arriving on foot despite the temple committee appealing to people to stay away.
A stampede broke out in the wee hours of Saturday as thousands of devotees thronged the narrow lanes leading up to the temple. While six persons died, about 70 were injured.
The fact-finding committee constituted by the Goa government is recording the statements of senior officials in charge of crowd management at the event.
The committee is headed by Sandeep Jacques, commissioner and secretary (revenue), with deputy inspector general Varsha Sharma, Director of Transport Pravimal Abhishek and Superintendent of Police Tikam Singh Verma are its members. Talking to PTI, a senior government official said the stampede broke out on a sloping ground which is prone to such accidents. “We have learnt that a similar incident, on a minor scale, had happened at the same spot during last year’s festival,” he said. The committee will investigate why precautions were not taken this year, he added. “The committee has recorded the statements of Collector Sneha Gitte, Superintendent of Police Akshat Kaushal, Deputy Superintendent of Police Jivba Dalvi, Deputy Collector Bhimnath Khorjuvekar, members of the temple committee and others,” he said.
The panel will need at least a couple of more days to gather inputs and file a report, the official said. It is also looking into reports that a fight between two groups of devotees triggered the stampede, he said. Despite the lanes leading to the temple being narrow, the temple committee had allowed shops to be set up on the route, adding to congestion, the official said. Director General of Police Alok Kumar had on Saturday said 30,000 to 40,000 people had gathered for the annual festival when some people standing on the slope fell, causing others to tumble and fall on each other.
Goa Medical College and Hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Rajesh Patil, meanwhile, said three out of the five persons who were seriously injured in the stampede were showing signs of improvement on Sunday.
A total of 14 patients were admitted and only one has been discharged so far, he told PTI.
Importantly, the condition of none of the critical patients has worsened, said Dr Patil.
Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai who visited the families of those who were killed in the stampede said the incident was “beyond human expectation”.
The government was doing its best to help the victims, he said.
Notwithstanding the tragedy, hundreds of devotees visited the village on Sunday, walking at least two km to take part in a ritual where the goddess (her idol) `visits’ the houses of local residents. The ritual follows a day after the `homkhand’ rite during which devotees walk on the embers of a big fire lit in the temple grounds. Dinanath Gaonkar, president of the temple committee, said it was not possible to cancel the ritual. “The incident on Saturday was unfortunate. Lives were lost. But we can not stop the rituals,” he said. The temple committee had made an appeal to devotees to avoid visiting the village, he said. “The police have also placed barricades in Assanora to stop vehicles from entering the area,” he said.
Yet, many were seen walking to the village on Sunday.
Stalls set up in the lanes around the temple too remained open. A local resident said, “You cannot stop people from attending the festival, as Devi Lairai is a revered deity with devotees across Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka.”