Managing the Masses

The site of the last incident,Uppupara,is part of an illegal route to the temple. The Justice Chandrashekharan Commission that had probed the 1999 incident recommended that Uppupara,part of the Periyar Tiger Reserve,be developed as another base station to ease the crowd at Pampa. The government never acted,yet made no move to block the illegal route or monitor it properly. Last fortnight,the site had three cops and lakhs of pilgrims when the stampede happened. More pilgrims than usual were using take the rubble-ridden forest track after the government had closed a major official route.

The authorised routes are monitored,though crowds can still go out of control. During the peak days,the police strength goes up to 1,000. The National Disaster Response Force and Rapid Action Force too are deployed,besides specially trained commandos,bomb disposal squads and rapid action teams at the temple and its premises. Movement is monitored on camera.

The queue at the Pampa base camp is lined with ropes but one snapped this season,killing a pilgrim. Devotees are sent to the shrine only in batches; vehicular traffic is regulated 50 km away. The Travancore Devaswom Board,which manages Sabarimala Temple,plans to open a new base camp at Nilakkal,near Pampa. A new flyover too will be constructed. Shaju Philip

Lord Venkateshwara Temple: Segregation,tokens are key

Hyderabad: Devotees are divided into manageable batches,grills and rope locks cut off or divert a queue at any hint of overcrowding,and queue managers monitor the flow at two vulnerable spots at the worlds busiest temple. The Lord Venkateshwara Temple,Tirumala,has at least one lakh pilgrims daily.

The batches include pilgrims going for free darshan,a Rs 50 token and a Rs 300 system that allows one to jump the queue till the sanctum sanctorum. All converge a few hundred yards from the sanctum sanctorum.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams issues 7,500 to 15,000 biometric tokens free and an additional 25 per cent tokens at Rs 50 each. These wristbands cannot be transferred. At the time indicated,pilgrims enter the Vaikuntam Queue Complex, says TTDs PRO P Ravi.

The Vaikuntam Queue Complex is a series of 35 successive halls and tunnels leading to the main temple. Up to 1,500 devotees can wait in a comfortable hall. Only when the rush has eased ahead do supervisors open the grill for those behind, says junior executive officer K Bhaskar.

For pilgrims on foot,24-hour medical aid is provided all along the footpath from Alipri, executive officer and member-secretary,TTD Board,I Y Ramakrishna Rao says.

The vulnerable spots,carefully monitored,are a foot-over-bridge where queues converge,and Vendi Vakili where the entrance is narrow. At the sanctum sanctorum,the entrance and exit are weak spots but the rope-lined queue is so tight that it prevents anyone from tripping. Sreenivas Janyala

Amarnath,Vaishno Devi: Tracked from start to finish

Jammu: Pilgrims to Amarnath and Vaishno Devi are registered on arrival at base camp and monitored throughout,their movements across hilly terrains tracked by volunteers and CCTV cameras,the track regularly inspected and the queues managed at various points including the shrine.

These measures by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board are in addition to frisking at various points and X-ray screening by the police and para military forces.

Amarnath had 4.5 lakh pilgrims during the 55-day yatra last year; Vaishno Devi,second only to Tirupati,had 87 lakh. The Vaishno Devi board has added two tunnels to the original one. The third can accommodate 30,000 to 40,000 a day. When that number is reached,no more pilgrims are registered.

Monitoring starts from Katra,where pilgrims get a slip before proceeding. Every pilgrim is checked at several points and none allowed to proceed without the slip. The idea is to prevent an unmanageable number and to temporarily halt movement if necessary, a board officer said. To avoid large crowds at the shrine,the board has constructed facilities for halts at various places along the route,complete with facilities.

For Amarnath,the board registers pilgrims in advance and gives them specific dates from Jammu as well as the base camps. Only 3,000 registered pilgrims are allowed to proceed from each side and all must submit fitness certificates. The weather forecast is checked before clearance to proceed.

Arun sharma

Chamunda Devi Mandir,Ajmer Dargah: Wake-up calls at both sites

Jaipur: On September 30,2008,the first day of Navratri,close to 250 people suffocated to death in a stampede during the annual festival in the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpurs Mehrangarh Fort. District officials said a devotee had slipped in a narrow staircase that led down to the temple.

Since then,security and crowd control arrangements are tighter,but the number of pilgrims has reduced. The barricades leading straight to the temple are being zigzagged,the number of guards being increased. The zigzag metal barricades will discourage shoving. We are also building a new path to the sanctum sanctorum,so that the narrow staircase will no longer be used, said Mahendra Singh,CEO,Meherangadh Fort Museum Trust.

Another pilgrimage site,the Ajmer Dargah,has close to five lakh visitors during the Urs in June and October. X-ray machines and CCTV cameras have been installed since the 2007 blasts,which claimed two lives and injured close to 100.

Three agencies work simultaneously to manage the crowd. The district administration provides police,home guards and civil defence personnel; the Dargah Committee and Anjuman Committee looks after pilgrims8217; safe passage once inside.

Security plans begin months before Urs and it is a long-drawn process. Everything is discussed in minute detail, said Bipin Kumar Pandey,SP,adding the arrangements have become a fine science over the years.

Crowd frenzy over visiting celebrities too is a threat,police say. Apurva