Uttarakhand stampede: Narrow passage, excess Sunday rush, rumour of current leak cause deadly crush

Haridwar: As the ambulances drove in with sirens blaring outside the Mansa Devi temple, where a stampede sparked by a rumour killed at least eight people, several injured persons were lying at the entrance unattended.

'Chunris' brought by the devotees to be offered to the goddess are strewn along the stairs that lead to the hilltop temple in Haridwar. Scores of footwear, too, lay abandoned at the entrance.

A video showed a policeman running towards an ambulance with an injured child in his arms. Later, an injured devotee writhing in pain inside an ambulance was enquiring about his relatives who had been separated in the chaos of the stampede.

Besides, eight deaths, at least 28 people have been injured in the stampede, according to the administration.

A large crowd of devotees came to visit the temple, which is atop the Shivalik Hills at an elevation of over 500 feet, and a rumour about an electricity current leak triggered panic among them that led to pushing and shoving.

Video clips of the stampede showed a huge crowd of men, women and children stuck in a narrow passage leading to the temple. Dozens of people, seemingly glued to each other and hardly moving, could only manage to hold the children above their heads.

Mahendra Pratap Singh, an eyewitness who saw the stampede from a rooftop a little distance away, said the excess crowd led to the tragic incident.

"Excess crowd is the only factor," he said.

An injured devotee, Nirmala, admitted at the government hospital, said the stampede happened as the bulk of people going up and those hurrying downwards choked the narrow passage.

"People coming back from the temple pushed those climbing upwards and then people began falling over each other. Nothing could be seen because of the crowd. I kept lying down," she said from her bed at the hospital.

Locals said if the administration had been a little cautious, considering the possibility of a huge crowd coming to the Mansa Devi temple, the accident could have been avoided.

"Mansa Devi is the biggest centre of attraction for devotees in Haridwar after Har Ki Pauri. Thousands of devotees come here every day. The crowd swells during the month of Sawan as a rule.

"Being a Sunday, the possibility of a larger crowd was very much there. So, the administration should have been more alert," said Ajay Jaiswal, a local.

During the Kanwar Yatra, which ended four days ago in Haridwar, 4.5 crore devotees reached Haridwar, according to the claims of the administration.

Since it was only a few days after the Kanwar Yatra and it was a Sunday, lakhs of people were in Haridwar, which is a major pilgrimage place.

Most of these devotees had reached the Mansa Devi temple for darshan, locals said. The crowd in the temple was increasing continuously but the administration was unaware of it, they said.

Mansa Devi temple can be reached through three routes. The first route is by road, which two-wheelers and cars use to go near the temple, while the second route is via a ropeway.

The third route is a trek route from near Har ki Pauri, which is also called the staircase path. This path is very narrow and reaches the temple premises directly. There is a ditch and dense bushes on one side of this path.

Before the stampede on Sunday morning, the crowd on this road was so thick that people were barely able to walk. Pressed against each other, all they could do was crawl along. A video shot shortly before the stampede shows a woman stuck in the crowd, barely able to hold her child.

The place seen in the video is where the stampede took place.

A crowd of devotees returning from the temple after visiting the temple through this route was very large, and there was an atmosphere of chaos along the route.

Some eyewitnesses said a short circuit occurred near the electricity metre installed on the route and that there was a spark, and fear spread among people which led to the stampede.

Haridwar's Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pramendra Singh Dobal said rumours of an electric current leak where the stairs to the temple begin triggered panic among people, leading to the stampede.

(With DHNS inputs)