Tirupati stampede: Survivors recollect chaos as tragedy mars TTD's spotless 'crowd control' history

TTD is known for best practices in crowd management. Many temples across the country have been known to approach TTD to understand the crowd management practices in the past.

Hyderabad: While survivors of Wednesday's stampede in the temple town of Tirupati recollected the few minutes of chaos and horror, TTD is grappling, for the first time in its history, with the death of devotees due to a failure in crowd management.

TTD is known for best practices in crowd management. Many temples across the country have been known to approach TTD to understand how to handle a huge influx of devotees -- something that the hill shrine has handled with aplomb in the past.

For instance the Ayodhya temple management had sent a group of officials to Tirumala to study crowd management at the Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple. On a normal day around 50,000 devotees crowd the shrine and on special and auspicious days, the number can surge to more than 1.5 lakh atop Tirumala. No tragedy has marred these occasions, though it was only in 2022 that the token system was introduced for Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam.

"I thought I was dead for a while. Luckily, a group of boys had helped me pull out when at least 10 people had fallen on me when the gates were opened suddenly. There was no control at all. Police could not control them," said V Lakshmi, a pilgrim from Visakhapatnam. He added, "I believe there were not enough police to handle such a crowd."

Another survivor recollected that there were loud screams all around, and they were all clueless for a moment about what was happening.

There was also a shortage of ambulances stationed at these token issuing counters.

Hindu mythology holds that passing through the Vaikunta Dwaram, Lord Vishnu's celestial gate, on Vaikuntha Ekadasi leads to spiritual liberation and blessings. This year, Vaikuntha Ekadasi falls on Jan 10. The Vaikunta Dwara is believed to be a direct passage to heaven. Devotees flock to the temple to seize this opportunity, which is available only on Vaikunta Ekadasi.

According to Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu opens the gates of Vaikunta on this day, allowing devotees to enter the heavenly realm. By passing through the Vaikunta Dwara, devotees seek to attain spiritual liberation and salvation, making this darshan a highly revered and sought-after experience.

The Lord Venkateswara Temple at Tirumala has a special entrance known as Vaikuntha Dwara or Uttara Dwaram on the north side of the sanctum sanctorum, opened only to Vaikuntha Ekadasi. It is believed that anyone who passes through the Vaikuntha Dwara on Vaikuntha Ekadasi attains Vaikuntha, the heavenly realm of Lord Vishnu.

Until a few years ago, the ritual atop Tirumala was observed only on one day, that is, on Vaikuntha Ekadasi. However, due to the demand from the devotees, it was increased to 10 days.

In addition, to accommodate more people and streamline the system, tokens were introduced in 2022. These tokens are issued two to three days before the Vaikuntha Ekadasi 10-day festival begins.

This year, TTD had planned to issue 1.2 lakh tokens over the next 10 days and made arrangements at 90 counters in nine different centres at the temple.