Crowds are inevitable. Be it a rock concert or a religious gathering, the challenge of managing them is admittedly difficult when attendance exceeds initial estimates.
Feb 17, 2025 07:04 IST First published on: Feb 17, 2025 at 07:04 IST
The lives of at least 18 people have been snuffed out in the second Kumbh-related tragedy in less than three weeks. Railway officials have attributed the calamitous stampede at New Delhi Railway Station to a combination of factors — the delay of two trains, an inordinate number of travellers waiting on one platform, an announcement of a special train, which led to a crowd surging towards the ill-fated area. There are also administrative lapses and failures. The Railways has ordered a detailed investigation into the incident, which will, no doubt, shed more light on the disaster. But one thing is already clear: The two tragedies should be eye-openers for the authorities that had drawn out extensive plans for the safety of Kumbh devotees. The loss of nearly 50 lives in these incidents should lead to a hard reckoning on what went wrong. It’s well known that railway stations and bus depots record a higher than usual footfall during pilgrimage season. Like their colleagues at venues of religious gatherings, officials at these transport hubs should be alert to anything that can trigger panic or anxiety. But, by all accounts, the authorities at the New Delhi Railway Station were caught off guard on Saturday. The inquiry should not only pinpoint the immediate trigger or cause of the commotion, it must also fix accountability for the failures and omissions that led to the horrific stampede. The probe and the subsequent action must be fair and transparent.
Crowds are inevitable. Be it a rock concert or a religious gathering, the challenge of managing them is admittedly difficult when attendance exceeds initial estimates. In 2013, a study published in the International Journal of Stampede Reduction pointed out that religious gatherings and pilgrimages account for nearly 80 per cent of the stampedes in the country. That year, a stampede at the Allahabad (now Prayagraj) Railway Station during Kumbh claimed 42 lives. Since then, the National Disaster Management Authority has framed detailed guidelines for crowd management. Yet, authorities at large congregations do not always act promptly to ensure that crowds keep moving calmly. In recent years, experts have advocated the use of technology — drones, for instance — to help law enforcers and event organisers to monitor crowd density and swiftly identify any source of pressure or disturbance. Technology was reportedly used at the Kumbh venue this year. However, the two tragedies should drive home the need to scale up the deployment of state-of-the-art crowd control methods at pilgrimage sites as well as at transit junctions for devotees.
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Most railway stations are busy places even on normal days. Conversations on railway safety and technology upgradation must be made more expansive and address the well-being and security of passengers at these stations. The imperative should be to ensure that pilgrims, migrants, workers, tourists and vacationers who use this mode of transport are safe, at the station and during the commute. The most sincere tribute to the victims of Saturday’s calamity would be to learn lessons from it — and to ensure that stampedes, and the toll they take, become a thing of the past.
