Yes, there was a rush to pay obeisance to the deity and to even exit from the spot at the wee hours of January 1, 2022. A minor altercation among some young boys led to the stampede at the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in which 12 people "unfortunately" died, Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said on Saturday. Preliminary information from the scene suggests following the altercation among some young boys, there was, within seconds, a stampede situation. Police and officials from the civil administration were quick to respond, and order within the crowd was immediately restored, but by that time, the damage had been done, said the DGP. As part of the routine, a high-level inquiry has been ordered and the Inquiry Committee will be headed by Principal Secretary (Home) with ADGP, Jammu and Divisional Commissioner, Jammu as members informed the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha through his twitter handle.
Tens of thousands of people usually visit the shrine every day but on the New Year eve and the New Year the numbers soared at the cave shrine, which is among India's most revered pilgrimage sites and being a narrow lane near the cave, managing the crowd became next to impossible. After a brief pause following this tragic incidence, pilgrims have now been allowed to visit the shrine again.
The list of pilgrims being killed in stampede in religious places in India is long and endless and yet there are no lessons learnt. Stampedes do not take place only at religious places, places like cinema halls, historical buildings like Qutub Minar, etc, have also seen such tragedy in the past. On December 4, 1981, 45 people, most of them children, had been killed in a stampede of panic stricken people when a power failure turned the historic monument into a tower of fear. Even as a one-man committee visited Qutub Minar on December 5, an element of mystery was added to the tragedy with the Delhi Municipal Corporation claiming that there was no power breakdown in the area during the time of the tragedy. A municipal corporation press release did admit that a truck collided with an electric pole leading to a power breakdown in the vicinity. Some of the visitors during that time did say that the lights had been deliberately switched off by hoodlums. Reams of editorials were written about the tragedy and the result was to close down the monument for the visitors. Now the tourists can only watch the monument from outside. Only researchers with special permissions are allowed inside the Qutub Minar.
Similarly on June 13, 1997, the tragic incident in New Delhi’s Upahaar Cinema happened in which 59 people died being trapped inside, mostly due to suffocation and stampede and around 103 people were seriously injured in the resulting stampede in the 1997 fire tragedy. There was no public announcement regarding the fire inside the auditorium or the balcony, nor were any fire alarms set off, resulting in a stampede. Even the Projector Operator was not given instructions to stop the film while the fire was raging. The Cinema hall has been closed since then.
Closing down the sites after the incident, is no solution. Experts, urban designers need to sit together study the inquiry report, find solutions or even make changes in the structure (barring historical monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India) to make it safe for the people to go and visit the places where they wish too. Inquiry reports should be treated with respect and its findings must be revisited and made public.
Stampede had been reported at the Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh in the past but with time it has been managed and controlled after a logical intervention. What is required to avoid such tragic incidents is that people, especially the students, at early stages in their life, must be taught about disaster management. It should be a part of the curriculum for all students in India and specialists in disaster management must teach students what to do when there is a fire outbreak, large gatherings, earthquakes, accidents, floods, etc.