Goa temple tragedy, which claimed 6 lives, was 'entirely preventable': Report

Panaji: A fact-finding committee appointed by the Goa government to investigate the May 3 stampede at a temple in North Goa district has concluded that the tragedy was "entirely preventable." Six persons died and around 100 people were injured in the stampede in the early hours during an annual festival of Sri Lairai Devi temple at Shirgao village.

The incident was the result of a combination of poor planning, lack of enforcement, ignored directives and inadequate infrastructure, said the report, a copy of which is with PTI.

The committee, headed by revenue secretary Sandip Jacques, has also provided recommendations to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.

"Based on field visits, interactions with eye-witnesses, injured victims, organisers, executive magistrates, police officials and perusal of available records, the committee found that the stampede was precipitated by a confluence of preventable lapses and oversights among key stakeholders," the report said.

The immediate cause of the stampede was overcrowding on the sloping pathway from `tali' (sacred pond) to `homkhand' (where fire is lit for ritual purposes), particularly at the upper end of the slope near the local RBL bank branch, it said.

It was aggravated by unruly behaviour of `dhonds' (devotees) and lack of proper crowd control measures, the report noted.

Devotees were allowed to enter the pathway from tali in groups which led to a build-up of people on the slope.

"The overcrowding, coupled with attempts by some groups of dhonds to push forward through the crowd and their unruly behaviour caused instability among devotees walking along the slope," the report stated.

A woman fell face-first on the slope, "triggering a chain reaction in which several people behind and around her lost their balance and fell over one another," it said.

But those who were at the back of the crowd were not aware of this, and kept moving forward, leading to the stampede, the report said.

Some of the injured victims told the committee that a minor incident of similar nature had allegedly occurred in the past.

"And in another case last year, a woman allegedly died due to suffocation on the sloped section of the pathway. However, the committee did not find any record to substantiate such an incident," the report clarified.

Still, the organisers, district administration and the district police should have reviewed past incidents and undertaken adequate precautionary measures, the committee concluded.

The government had transferred the district magistrate and district superintendent of police immediately after the incident.