Crowd Tramples Sleeping Pilgrims in Deadly Rush at World’s Largest Religious Gathering
An estimated 80 million to 100 million were present at the Kumbh pilgrimage
At least 40 people are dead after the incident at the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival.
PRAYAGRAJ, India—A celebration of ritual bathing at India’s largest Hindu religious festival turned into a scene of tragedy as a crowd early Wednesday trampled over sleeping pilgrims, according to witnesses and advisers to the festival.
At least 40 people are dead, and several more injured, according to a police official. The toll could rise.
Akanksha Rana, a senior official at the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, told reporters that there was a “stampede-like situation.” No official death toll has been given.
Religious festivals in India have been marred by deadly crowd crushes in previous years. But authorities in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh said they had carefully planned to avoid tragedy at this edition of the Kumbh, a pilgrimage billed as the biggest gathering of humans on the planet.
Pilgrims during the aftermath of the rush on Wednesday.
Officials projected up to 450 million people were expected to visit the city of Prayagraj over a six-week period in January and February. This time around, officials used cameras with facial recognition and satellite imagery to track crowds and alert officials to safety concerns.
On Wednesday, considered the most auspicious bathing day on the calendar, about 80 to 100 million were present at the festival, Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, told reporters. Tens of millions have already streamed into the festival grounds to take a ritual dip at the convergence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, which Hindus believe purify their sins.
An adviser to the festival, who requested anonymity, said that in the early hours of Wednesday a crowd broke through a barrier and crushed people sleeping on the river banks near the meeting point of the two rivers. Police had cleared the area of sleeping pilgrims overnight, but many people came back after authorities left. “It was unexpected, and we couldn’t have anticipated it,” the person said, referring to the pilgrims’ return to the area.
Sarita Devi, 48, said she was sleeping on the beach with her husband and daughter when a surge of people “came out of nowhere” and trampled her husband. She was trying to revive him when her daughter dragged her away.
“She said, ‘He’s gone, but we have to get out of here too,’” said Devi, amid sobs. She was brought to a temporary hospital on the festival grounds to await treatment for leg injuries.
Dozens of ambulances headed to the river banks. Around 2:30 a.m., emergency crew carried away dozens of people on stretchers, leaving blankets, clothes and shoes strewn on the beach.
At the temporary hospital, a doctor said that at least 200 injured had been brought in and more people were streaming in. “It’s a relentless flow of patients,” she said. “It hasn’t stopped.”
Belongings were left strewn on the ground.
Officials said they had worked for at least two years to prepare safely for the Kumbh, which has been the scene of deadly overcrowding in the past. At the Kumbh Mela in 2013, at least 36 people were killed in crowding at the nearby train station as they headed to the festival site. A deadly crowd crush at the 1954 Kumbh Mela killed at least 500 people.
This time, officials said they were prepared to handle upward of 100 million devotees in a single day. At a command center in the festival, which spans an area the size of 8,000 football fields, police officers scan footage from about 1,600 security cameras throughout the fair, looking for trouble spots such as agitated crowds or bottlenecks, said Amit Kumar, superintendent of police in charge of the Kumbh’s Integrated Command and Control Centre.
Avoiding deadly crowding “is the holy grail,” he said earlier this week. Police have a number of tactics, including putting up additional barricades and forming human chains to divert and slow down crowds, Kumar said. Loudspeaker messages also remind pilgrims that the entire area is suitable for sacred bathing, not just where the two rivers meet, he said. On Wednesday, Kumar didn’t respond to multiple calls and requests for comment.
Festival organizers have encouraged pilgrims, sometimes over loudspeakers, to bathe at the convergence of the rivers and then head home.
The day is usually marked by a procession of holy men leading their followers into the rivers for a spiritual cleansing bath. Local news reports indicated many religious sects initially planned to cancel their dip for the day to avoid further chaos, but later some resumed the ritual bathing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have increasingly seized on religious events such as the Kumbh Mela as a symbol of Hindu pride in recent years. Banners were pasted throughout the fair grounds calling for the creation of a Hindu nation.
On X, Modi called the incident “extremely sad” and extended his condolences to “the devotees who have lost their loved ones.”
