BOMBAY, 28 August 2003 — A stampede caused by the collapse of a barricade in a narrow lane packed with thousands of people at a Hindu religious festival yesterday in western India killed at least 70 people, mostly women and children, and injured 200 others.
The incident occurred as more than a million Hindu devotees assembled for a religious bathing festival in the Godavari River outside the town of Nasik, about 175 kilometers northeast of Bombay, officials said. The government announced compensation of 200,000 rupees to the family members of those who died and 50,000 rupees for the seriously injured.
Nasik Mayor Dashrath Patil said twenty-six of those killed were women, and two of the injured were police officers.
Ambulances rushed to the area as rescue workers urged the crowd to give way so the injured could be taken to hospitals. Cars and police vehicles were also used to bring in the dozens of injured people.
“There were some 50,000 people behind one barricade and they were pushing. The barricade suddenly broke and they just fell down,” said Chhagan Bhujbal, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state.
“People at the back just began walking over them and that’s how the stampede happened,” said Bhujbal. “It was a tragic accident.” Bamboo barricades are erected during the festival to try to funnel pilgrims safely to the water.
Survivors, many of them standing around in shock, said the collapse of the barricade set off a panic among falling, screaming pilgrims. “Old women were crying, ‘take me out. Help me,”’ said Lalji Mistry, a 35-year-old pilgrim who moved away from the crush in time.
Officials said the barricade, which was holding back a group of people waiting to get to the river, collapsed as they impatiently pushed against it. “People, even women, were pushing forward. Due to the pressure of the crowd, people started falling down,” said Mistry, a marble craftsman from western Rajasthan state.
After the stampede, tens of thousands of pilgrims continued bathing at the festival on a site of some 100 square kilometer area in Panchwati, a northern Nasik suburb. “Many don’t know what’s going on. They are still bathing,” said Mistry.
Hundreds of worried relatives gathered outside Nasik Civil Hospital seeking information about missing family members. Pawan Modi, 55, a businessman from eastern Bihar state, said authorities refused them entry because they were worried about controlling the large crowd.
“I have been searching for my sister for hours. I hope she is inside and is well,” said Modi, whose sister was walking ahead of him when the stampede occurred.
“The crowd started pushing and I managed to move aside. I don’t know if my sister escaped or if she was trapped inside,” he said. The Kumbh Mela festival is held every 12 years, timed in connection with alignment of the Sun and Jupiter. While the main festival is held near the city of Allahabad, the Nasik festival is one of the “mini-Kumbhs” that are held more often.
Stampedes are not uncommon at major Hindu religious festivals, which can attract millions. In 1999, 51 pilgrims died after a stampede caused a landslide at a Hindu shrine in southern India. In 1986, 50 people died in a stampede in the town of Haridwar, and in 1954 about 800 pilgrims died during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad.
