MP Stampede: No lessons learnt?

On the auspicious occasion of Dussherra last Sunday, as the entire world celebrated the triumph of victory of the good over the evil, the demons seemed to have conspired against the pilgrims in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. About over 125 devout pilgrims died in yet another stampede at a religious gathering, some in the crush of an estimated five lakh people and others jumping into a river, numbed senseless by panic following rumours that the bridge was about to give way.But the irony is that a few thousand kilometres away from that very place, the combined and dedicated efforts of both the state as well as the central government was able to undertake the biggest evacuation in the history and being successful in saving millions of lives about to be crushed by nature’s fury called Phailin.

While conviction and dedication showed to the rest of the world that we’re no less than anybody else in handling crisis, utter ignorance and lack of seriousness by the Madhya Pradesh government left behind a big blot on the face of our country not only internally but globally too. There are several things that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government could have learnt from the steady stream of stampede casualties at religious places, but then it’s obvious now that state governments and temple authorities responsible for managing such large gatherings and especially on special occasions give little thought to crowd management. And that’s precisely why being a pilgrim in India becomes such a big curse. 

Almost seven years back the very same site had witnessed a disaster, when 57 people died on the ninth day of the same festival. The bridge did not exist then and pilgrims had to use boats to reach the temple. The river was flooded when a large quantity of water was released from reservoir upstream without prior warning. No action was taken against the persons responsible for that act and seven years later no lessons seemed to have learnt by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan led government in Madhya Pradesh.

As per official sources, the death toll in Sunday’s stampede at the Ratangarh temple in Madhya Pradesh could cross 125, as divers were still busy fishing out bodies from the Sindh River. Eyewitnesses said pilgrims panicked when a tractor dashed against the railing of the bridge and it felled. Rumours that the bridge was going to collapse triggered the stampede. Some devotees were crushed to death under the feet of fellow worshippers, while others drowned after jumping into the river. The police had allowed many tractors and trolleys on the 750 metre bridge which led to a long traffic jam. It was the tractors running on the narrow bridge that caused the disaster. The Ratangarh temple is located in a remote forest area in Datia district. It took quite some valuable time for the news of the stampede to get out. Datia, which is the smallest district in the state, does not have enough police personnel to deal with the tens of thousands of people who gather for such occasions. This time around the District collector was on leave and even the divisional commissioner was on an overseas visit.

However what has blown everyone away is the recent revelations post the stampede at the Ratangarh temple, that villagers and survivors have claimed that they were witness to policemen dumping bodies of pilgrims into the river to water down the death toll of the tragedy. According to the report which appeared in today’s Times of India, eyewitnesses even accused the police had stealing money and valuables from the bodies before tossing them off the bridge. “I was there at the bridge during the stampede and I have seen policemen dumping over two dozen pilgrims, some of them alive, into the river,” said Geeta Mishra, 55, a resident of Bhind, in the Times of India report. This is indeed a very serious allegation put forward by the survivors and cannot be ignored. And if indeed such a shameless and cowardly act has taken place, then each and every policemen involved must be punished.


Though on pen and paper, last year the state government constituted a statutory authority for fairs and pilgrimages, which is expected to ensure adequate arrangements for the organisation of such fairs. However the very same authority entrusted with the safety of pilgrims has ended up as a centre for political rehabilitation and promotion of the BJP’s political agenda in organising pilgrimages under the Chief Minister’s aegis during this election year to reap political brownie points. The saddest part and arguably the biggest fault of the state government is the non-deployment of enough police personnel for such a large convergence of pilgrims which is an annual affair. For a recent jamboree of the workers the ruling party ensured deployment of at least 5,000 policemen including 12 IPS and 60 State Police service officers. While for Ratangarh a force of 60 was considered enough to handle the traffic of over 150,000 visitors.

What is really tragic about the incident is the grim realization that we have learnt nothing from similar tragedies earlier but no lessons seemed to have been learnt. So what works?  Preparedness does. That is the biggest message from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The 1999 super cyclone caught everyone off guard, exposing the weakness of governments to respond quickly to a natural calamity of high magnitude. Alert to their own inadequacies, both the states and the centre have been preparing themselves well. The National Disaster Management Authority, which has grown with experience from different calamities across the country, was fortunately not a disaster this time. It has been busy training officials at ground levels on ways to handle the situations arising out of a calamity, and it helped. It helped that the much-maligned Indian Meteorological Department was accurate in its forecast of the cyclone, its course and extent. It allowed time for the administrations in both the states to react. And the both the UPA government at the centre as well as the state governments of Odhisha and Andhra Pradesh deserve a pat at the back. Mr. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, are you taking a note atleast this time around?

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