Maha Kumbh stampede: Whose fault was it… could the accident have been avoided? Know what happened that night at Sangam

The scene after the stampede at Maha Kumbh (Photo: PTI)

Be it Kumbh, Ardh Kumbh, Purna Kumbh or Maha Kumbh, the biggest Amrit Snan is on Mauni Amavasya. This bath is considered essential for attaining salvation. It is believed that Amrit flows in the Triveni of Prayagraj on this day, due to which most people take a pledge to bathe in the nose of Sangam instead of bathing in ‘Ganga’ river or Yamuna river.

The locus seen in the fair area of ​​Maha Kumbh on Wednesday shocked everyone. A person, for fear of losing the dead body of his relative, did not let go of his hand until the body reached the morgue of the hospital. He was afraid that if he let go of the dead body, he would not even get to see the body of his relative. In the atmosphere of chaos and crowd of crores of people, the administration was struggling to take the dead and injured to the hospital. Photo After the incident, more than 50 ambulances were seen near Sangam. Shoes, slippers, blankets, bags and clothes were scattered all around.

It is claimed that all these belongings belonged to the devotees who had stayed with their families near Sangam to take Amrit Snan on Mauni Amavasya. But during this time, there was a stampede in the crowd of people going towards Sangam and in this stampede, the crowd fell on those who were sleeping there or were waiting to take Amrit Snan with their families. After this stampede, hundreds of people got separated from their loved ones and the bodies of many people were brought to the hospital in ambulances.
30 died, CM became emotional

When we reached the central hospital of Maha Kumbh, we saw 11 dead bodies lying on the floor, the pictures of which can disturb you. Till now we were seeing the grand pictures of Maha Kumbh every day in which crores of people were bathing every day. No untoward incident happened anywhere but no one had imagined that after the divine pictures of Maha Kumbh, we will have to see these sad pictures today, in which instead of bathing in Maha Kumbh, we will see the figures of deaths.

30 people have died in this stampede. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also got emotional while giving a statement on this incident today. Today, this ‘stampede’ is being discussed not only in India but all over the world. Everyone wants to know where this incident happened in Maha Kumbh, how it happened, why it happened and can there be any conspiracy behind it? First of all, let us know in which sector and which ghat of Maha Kumbh this incident happened?

What happened at Sangam that night?

This time the fair area of ​​​​Mahakumbh is spread over about 4 thousand hectares of land, in which there are a total of 25 sectors and 41 ghats. This incident has happened in Sector 2 of the fair area, where the most prominent and important ghat of Maha Kumbh is located. This ghat is also called Sangam Ghat or Sangam Nose because the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers meet at this ghat. People believe that they will get the real virtue of holy bath in Maha Kumbh only when they take a dip in Sangam. This is the reason that all the people who are going to Maha Kumbh want to take a bath at Sangam Ghat and the same happened in this incident. The devotees who were present on the banks of Ganga and Yamuna river started moving towards Sangam Ghat to take Amrit bath on Mauni Amavasya, due to which the pressure of crowd on Sangam Ghat increased considerably.

When this incident happened at 2 am, just half an hour before that some pictures of Sangam Ghat had come, in which a crowd of people was seen all around. It is estimated that at that time more than 25 lakh devotees had gathered around Sangam in this one sector only. The roads made by the police to reach Sangam were so full that people were trying to break the barricades installed there and the police and Rapid Action Force personnel were repeatedly persuading them to stop. All these conditions were just half an hour before the stampede. According to the administration, this incident happened between 1:45 am and 2 am. The distance of Sangam Ghat from the place where this incident happened was only 200 meters at most.

Did the crowd increase due to VVIP movement?

Now coming to the question, was the VVIP movement the reason for this crowd? Many people are claiming on social media that the administration had reserved many routes for VVIP leaders, celebrities and officials, due to which this stampede happened but according to the information we have received, this claim is misleading and not completely correct. In the 45 days of Maha Kumbh, the biggest Amrit Snan takes place only on Mauni Amavasya at Sangam and this bath is done by the saints and Mahamandaleshwars of 13 Akharas. On this day, common devotees can take Amrit Snan on the banks of Ganga and Yamuna river but due to Sanatan tradition, saints take Amrit Snan only at the Nose of Sangam. This is the reason why a reserved route is made for the saints to reach Sangam, which is also called ‘Akhada Road’.

The tents of the saints of the Akharas are set up on the other side of the Ganga river. They have to cross the Ganga river using temporary bridges to come to this Akhara route to take a bath in the Sangam and since all the Akharas reach Sangam on chariots for Amrit Snan, this route is kept a little wider and bigger. The same was done for the Amrit Snan of Mauni Amavasya and this was not a VVIP movement. The police had closed many temporary bridges built on the Ganga river so that the common devotees could take a bath at the ghat where they were and not come towards the Sangam. But this did not happen and crores of devotees reached the Sangam from different routes, due to which the Naga Sadhus had to stop their Amrit Snan.

Due to the crowd, the saints of one ‘Akhada’ had to return to their camps midway without taking Amrit Snan and this also angered these saints. Amidst all this, the situation started getting worse when after reaching the Sangam, people stopped there and started waiting for the morning. All these people were thinking that they would take a holy bath at 4 am on Mauni Amavasya in the Brahma-muhurta and later return to the city from there. But due to this, the pressure of the crowd on Sangam started increasing a lot and in this crowd, lakhs of people started resting there by keeping their luggage near Sangam. It is claimed that when the stampede happened on the way to Sangam, then this crowd fell on the people sleeping there and 30 people lost their lives.

Could the accident have been avoided?

Did the administration not make any effort to control this crowd? Could this stampede have been prevented? If the devotees had not ignored the administration’s appeal, then yes, this incident could have been prevented. DIG Vaibhav Krishna had appealed on the loudspeaker shortly before the incident that people should not stay overnight on the ghats as this could cause trouble to other devotees coming. He had also said that instead of going to Sangam, people should take holy bath on the ghats which are nearby. But people did not pay heed to this appeal of the administration and this incident happened due to the arrival of a large number of people at Sangam.

It is true that people did not pay heed to the administration’s appeal but it is also a fact that it would be completely wrong to blame the people for this incident. If you look at the arrangements of Maha Kumbh, the administration had diverted many routes to control the crowd at Sangam. Due to this diversion, people had to walk 6 to 7 km to reach the nose of Sangam, i.e. the route of Sangam which was 1 to 2 km, became 6 to 7 km due to diversion.

Apart from this, these routes were narrower than the crowd and reaching Sangam while jostling on these roads was no less than an ordeal. If a person reaches Sangam by walking 6 to 7 km in the fair area, then it is natural for him to stop for some time at the ghat and rest. In this incident also, many people did the same, so it would not be right to say why people were stopping there. Here the fault lies with the administration, which failed to control the crowd.