‘We screamed, we cried, nobody listened…people just walked over others’: Mahakumbh stampede eyewitnesses recount hours of chaos, panic

In this Maha Kumbh, where every detail has been framed as a poster of state efficiency, where everything was counted and is countable – from the number of special trains down to a headcount, every two hours, of those who took a dip – when it came to the dead and injured, the count took its time.

This even as the pilgrims ran from hospital pillar to official post. “My sister Renu, 35, is missing,” Ajay Kumar Yadav told The Indian Express. Standing outside the morgue, Yadav, in his 30s and a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh, looked more and more anxious as the day progressed.

Ambulances make way at Maha Kumbh Mela after a stampede at Sangam ghat on Mauni Amavasya in Prayagraj on Wednesday. (Express photo by Chitral Khambhati)

“My sisters, including Renu, went to the Sangam Tuesday but the rest of them are safe. I went to another hospital (Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital) twice and asked the police to make announcements but they asked me to wait in the queue,” he said.

“They are not saying how many dead bodies they have received. Don’t they have the data?” asked an agitated Manish Pandey, who is also searching for his sister, Vibha Malik Tripathi.

Data was in stark abundance at the sprawling grounds of the Maha Kumbh: torn sandals, clothing, backpacks, water bottles, personal belongings of those caught in the stampede. Police personnel tried to maintain some order, forming human chains and shouting instructions over loudspeakers.

There were varying accounts of what had transpired. Some eyewitnesses said there was a sudden swell of the crowd on the road leading to the “Sangam Nose,” the triangular landmass considered the spot of the Sangam or where the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati merge.

Some eyewitnesses claimed three of the four gates leading to this ghat were closed, leading devotees to crowd near the only one that was open. A video doing the rounds of many phones at the site showed part of a barricade being pushed open by the crowd as hapless security personnel watch a section of the crowd flow out, a trickle turning into a gush.

“There was a scuffle, a (wooden) barrier broke, and many people died and several were injured,” said 60-year-old Beri Devi, whose husband is among those missing. “I went to the Mela hospital first, and they sent me to the mortuary.”

Others talked of chaos near Pillar No. 147, close to the site of the stampede. Jayprakash Soni, who was waiting at the mortuary for the body of his 65-year-old mother, said there was a sudden surge in the crowd.

“Around 1-1:30 am, the crowd started running here and there and there was no policeman in sight. People started falling and others kept walking on them,” Soni said. His father and children escaped the crush, he said, but not his mother. “The crowd came and she got trampled.”

The crowd gathered for ‘Amrit Snan’ on Mauni Amavasya at the Maha Kumbh Mela on Wednesday morning. A stampede-like situation broke out after a barrier reportedly broke. (Express Photo: Chitral Khambhati)

Devki Rajput, who walked from the mela site to the Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital to look for her missing aunt, said: “Twenty of us were together when we went for our bath at around 12:30 am. Then the crowd started to swell. Within minutes, I lost my aunt… The situation was such that we didn’t think any one of us would survive.”

Basdev Sharma came from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh with his family. He said they had proceeded for their bath with their belongings, their money carefully tucked away.

“There was suddenly a massive crowd,” Basdev said, his voice trembling. “One of my family members was crushed. We had taken our dip and were returning when we saw her lying unconscious… People just walked all over her. No one even stopped.” She suffered multiple injuries to her chest and legs.

Ram Prasad Yadav, also from Sultanpur, said he found himself gasping for breath as the crowds around him swelled. “I was making my way towards the river when suddenly, I felt myself falling… Before I could get up, the crowd was walking over me.”

Ram Prasad was among the lucky ones, he has had minor injuries. However, his 65-year-old mother was left severely injured. “We had to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital,” he said. “But now, we have no money. No phone. I don’t even know how we will return home.”

Om Prakash Yadav said his sister Reena had taken a dip last night. “But then the crowd came, and people just fell under. I didn’t even know she was gone until morning. They told me she was Body Number 27.”

Ballia-based Baljeet Singh, who lost his wife Mira, remembered the crowd becoming a monstrous force, pressing against them. “There was no way we could save ourselves,” he said, his voice shaking. “I felt my wife slip away from my grasp. Another relative of mine… I’m hearing they didn’t make it either.

Jagwanti wept beside a body bag, standing next to an ambulance carrying her sister-in-law Rita and mother Rampati. Her father Dhanramraj survived with a broken leg.

They had come in a group of 20 from Jaunpur, Jagwanti said. “We begged the police to help us,” she said, breaking down. “We screamed, we cried, but nobody listened. I thought we were all going to die.”

She added that the police could have done little. “They had to run for their own lives… The crowd kicked my bhabhi (sister-in-law) to death. She has a small child waiting for her back home.”

Officials stand with an ambulance inside the Motilal Nehru Medical College mortuary after a stampede at Maha Kumbh Mela on Mauni Amavasya in Prayagraj. (Express photo by Chitral Khambhati 290125)

Phool Chand Vishwakarma lost his wife. “I got trapped for 30 minutes,” he said. “By the time I made it out, I saw my wife lying. She was gone.”

At the ghat, Laxmi from Chhatarpur, Bihar, grieved alone for her husband, Hakum, refusing to speak to anyone.

At nightfall, a group of four people, all from Karnataka, were huddled together back at the morgue in deep mourning. Outside, medics were piling four bodies into two waiting ambulances that will now be taken to Delhi and flown back to Bengaluru.

Among the deceased was the husband of Kanchan Koparde. “We were at the Kumbh and were about to go take a dip when, around 1-1.30 am, a crush of people came straight towards us. My husband, a friend, and two more acquaintances were caught in the stampede and there was no space to run,” she said, fighting back tears, before she boarded a waiting ambulance.

—With inputs from Oohini Mukherjee, Jansatta