Keeping up with UP: Crowd mismanagement not ‘will of God’ triggered Kumbh deaths

During earlier editions of the gathering — the largest gathering of people in the world -- spiritual and community leaders often helped the administration in convincing people to not bathe in crowded SANGAM , they can go to other ghats during Kumbh. That’s unlike now: Shastri, for one, urged pilgrims to take the dip at Sangam - the confluence of river Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati – knowing fully well that the area had limited capacity.

For someone like me, who grew up amid the chanting of mantras and recitation of religious verses at home, it is hard to believe that death in a stampede – which happens primarily because of crowd mismanagement -- could be the will of God or would give the deceased, salvation.

The masses had come in droves, driven by the hype over the rarity of the Maha Kumbh 2025 because of a rare celestial conjunction, which occurs only once in 144 years. Roadshows were organised, invites sent out and social influencers hired to spread the message: A religious hysteria was whipped up.

A social influencer, who until the stampede was drumming the elaborate and efficient arrangements made for the pilgrims, tearfully narrated the deaths she saw and the lives she saved. The influencer’s version of the event bears testimony to the fact that the administration was struck by paralysis as it was not prepared or equipped to handle such a tragedy. Until the accident, the administration’s focus was on maintaining security of the VIPs and creating the record of maximum pilgrims at the Maha Kumbh 2025. As it turns out, the inflow of pilgrims was more than the outflow.

This was the 8th stampede at Kumbh but, clearly, no lessons have been learnt. Former DGP, OP Singh, in his book Crime, Grime and Gumption, has written, “The history of Kumbh has had its fair has had its fair share of tragedies and also restrictive practices by the government in pre-independent India. Stampedes occurred in Kumbh in 1840, 1906, 1954 (all at Prayagraj), 1986 (Haridwar)2003 (Nashik) 2010 (Haridwar) and again 2013( Prayagraj). The worst stampede recorded till date took place on 3 February 1954 in Prayagraj which led to colossal loss of 800 human lives. Despite elaborate government arrangements, stampede occur at the Kumbh regularly. About 600 pilgrims died in three stampedes in Hardwar during the 1980s. The risk of a stampede during such a massive gathering was immense.”

The 2019 Kumbh mela was held under Singh’s supervision. The focus of the government in 2019 was on Surakshit Kumbh and Swatch Kumbh and not on record-breaking congregation.

Singh also wrote an MoU was signed with the Moti Lal Nehru National Institute of Technology and the Kumbh Mela police to generate crowd density alerts periodically at strategic locations and bathing ghats to flag an emergency. Several studies were also conducted in collaboration with the Bureau of Police Research and Development, IIM Lucknow, IIT Kanpur and Lucknow University focusing on critical areas such as leadership, behavioural issues, motivation, team building. When the government was using technology to collect data on pilgrims, the same must have been used for crowd density alerts and critical areas.

KP Singh, who was DIG Kumbh in 2019, said the first few minutes are critical in a stampede, demanding immediate decision-making such removal of barricades to ease the pressure created by a sudden crowd surge. Stampede-like situations had developed at least three times in 2019 but were managed by the police and authorities.

What went wrong in 2025? Many are of the view that the government went overboard in propagating spiritual tourism, expecting 45 crore pilgrims at Kumbh to boost state economy by two lakh crores.

The government remained in a denial mode over the second stampede despite videos circulating on social media. Perhaps, Yogi delayed the announcement of deaths as the backroom channels were trying to convince and persuade Akhadas to take the holy dip on the auspicious day of Mauni Amavasya. The saints had earlier announced cancellation of their ritualistic bath, which would have left a question mark on the state government’s administrative efficiency.

The Muslim community has kept away from the event being told that those who don’t believe in the Sanatan dharma should neither take a dip in Ganga nor set up their shops in designated areas. Now, they have opened their mosques and homes to help pilgrims.

Without going into the controversy surrounding the numbers of causalities in the two major incidents of stampede at Sangam nose and Jhunsi as there is a huge mismatch between the government and the eyewitnesses accounts, the fact is that the death of even one pilgrim who came to Kumbh driven by his faith is unfortunate.