Killer surge

The local administration had been inordinately proud of the arrangements made for the Nashik Kumbh Mela. The media were taken on guided tours of the mini township that had emerged on the banks of the Godavari, right down to the little first aid cabins. There were worries, of course, about terrorist attacks and after Monday8217;s blasts in Mumbai, pilgrims were frisked and helicopters patrolled the skies. But amidst all this brouhaha, the authorities seemed to have lost sight of a calamity that was the most likely to occur, given the milling crowds, given past experience: Stampedes.

The 30-odd deaths that occurred in the stampede that took place in a narrow lane leading to the ghat during Wednesday8217;s shahi snan should not have occurred. They should not have occurred even if we were to accept the Maharashtra police8217;s claim that some sadhus threw coins which people in the crowd attempted to gather, thus triggering off the deadly squeeze. They should not have occurred if a provision as basic as ensuring that pilgrims going for the dip were segregated from those returning. If there were different exit and entry points, along with proper policing at both ends, a solemn, spiritual occasion would not have been marred by these totally unnecessary deaths. As it happened, there was no policing worth the name. The few police barricades that were in evidence proved piteously ineffectual in handling the surge.

Yes, stampedes have often marked gatherings of this kind. But it would be cynical indeed if the authorities were to draw solace from this fact. The Maha Kumbh at Allahabad in January 2001 witnessed crowds considerably larger than those at Nashik, yet it was largely incident-free. This was because of the meticulous crowd-management planning that had gone into the event. The mela area had been divided in several sectors, with each under an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of police. Crowd movement was monitored by closed circuit TV screens and its management was based on the inputs from such monitoring. If the authorities at Nashik had studied these arrangements for the smoother conduct of their Kumbh Mela, we may have been spared the heartbreaking sights witnessed at the local civil hospital on Wednesday.