‘Crowd went uncontrolled’, ‘no chance for escape’: Here’s what happened moments before Mahakumbh stampede

Mahakumbh stampede: As a sea of tightly packed crowds at Mahakumbh converged at the Triveni Sangam for the ‘Amrit Snan’ (holy bath) on Mauni Amavasya, the ‘crowd went uncontrolled’, leading to a stampede that left the devotees with ‘no chance for an escape’.

Uttar Pradesh government official Akanksha Rana told news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) that the stampede began after crowd control barriers “broke”.

The Amrit Snan on Mauni Amavasya is the most significant ritual of the Maha Kumbh, and around 10 crore pilgrims were expected to attend it. This year, a rare celestial alignment called ‘Triveni Yog’ is occurring after 144 years, amplifying the spiritual significance of the day.

What happened moments before the Mahakumbh stampede?

A devotee from Karnataka, Sarojini, came to the Mahakumbh with a group of 60 people in two buses. Her group consisted of nine people.

Weeping outside the hospital, Sarojini said, “Suddenly, there was pushing in the crowd, and we got trapped. A lot of us fell down, and the crowd went uncontrolled.”

"There was no chance for escape; there was pushing from all sides," she told PTI.

Pilgrim Malti Pandey, 42, told AFP he was on his way to bathe in the river along a barricaded walking route when the stampede began. “Suddenly, a crowd started pushing, and many people were crushed,” he said.

Another woman at the hospital whose child suffered injuries in the chaos claimed that “there was nowhere to go”. “Some people who pushed us were laughing while we begged them for kindness towards the children.”

What happened after the Mahakumbh stampede?

While ordinary devotees at the Mahakumbh continued their holy bath after the incident, the Akharas (monastic orders) called off their traditional Amrit Snan for Mauni Amavasya.

“You would've seen what happened in the morning, and that's why we have decided to... All of our saints and seers were ready for the 'snan' when we were informed about this incident. That's why we have decided to call off our ‘snan’ on 'Mauni Amavasya',” Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad president Mahant Ravindra Puri, representing at least 13 Akharas, said.

Kumbh stampede: History

More than 400 people died after being trampled or drowned at the Kumbh Mela on a single day of the festival in 1954, one of the largest tolls in a crowd-related disaster globally.

Another 36 people were crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was staged in the northern city of Prayagraj.

(With agency inputs)