AT LEAST 63 people, all of them women and children, were crushed to death in a stampede at a Hindu temple in northern India yesterday as thousands of devotees struggled to get free food, clothes and utensils.
The disturbance, in which more than 50 people were also injured, knocked down a gate at the temple compound in Pratapgarh, some 650km southeast of New Delhi, triggering panic which, in turn, caused the stampede.
By late afternoon, police had cleared the compound and begun the process of identifying the bodies as hundreds of anxious people gathered at the local hospital morgue for news of family members.
“We have counted all the bodies and they include 37 children and 26 women who had come to collect free gifts,” local police official SP Pathak said.
State officials said the organisers were unprepared for the 10,000-strong crowd that assembled to meet holy man Kripaluji Maharaj at the Ram Janki temple.
They said the temple authorities had not even informed the district administration about the impending function.
“She just wandered in to see what was happening,” said Gudal (38), a farmer whose seven-year- old daughter, Ranjana, died in the melee.
Religious gatherings, pilgrimages and holy festivals are a part of most Indians’ lives, cutting across all social barriers. Consequently, similar stampedes at religious events across the country are not uncommon as tens of thousands of worshippers congregate in congested areas with little or no regard to safety measures.
The most recent tragedy occurred in October 2008 when some 220 people died near a Hindu temple inside Jodhpur’s ancient Mehrangarh Fort in western Rajasthan province when a wall collapsed.