Lessons Unlearnt: Why stampedes keep occurring
At least nine people were killed and several others injured in a stampede at the Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district last Saturday. The victims, mostly women, were crushed as panic spread through the crowd during a religious ritual. Imagine families, who happily must have prepared to visit the temple with faith and cheerfulness, least realising that the day will turn into unimaginable horror. Sadly, the current tragedy was not an exception. It was part of a long, grim list of stampedes that occur with upsetting regularity in India. From religious gatherings and festivals to railway stations and political rallies, such disasters repeat with the same script: overcrowding, confusion, panic, and chaos and then the blame game. If you study media reports, then every alternate month, some big or small mishap has happened in the last couple of years. Yet, little has changed in how we plan, manage, and respond to large gatherings. The problem is not that India has too many people; it is that we still treat crowd management as an afterthought, not a science or skill that could be managed.
Stampedes are preventable. They are not acts of fate or acts of God. In almost every case, the underlying causes are the same: poor planning, lack of coordination between authorities, inadequate infrastructure, and the absence of crowd behaviour management. With now increased availability and facilities of public transportation, railway service, and air flights, religious festivals in India have started attracting millions, far exceeding the capacity of venues and local administrations. Narrow passageways, poor barricading, blocked exits, and inadequate signage are common fault lines. In Srikakulam, eyewitnesses said there were no proper barricades and only a handful of policemen were present despite the massive turnout. The result is tragic predictability. People push forward for a better view of the deity or a faster exit, someone trips, and panic ripples through the crowd.
Those at the back continue to push forward, unaware of the disaster unfolding ahead. Most victims die not from being trampled, but from suffocation, crushed chest to back in a wave of bodies that no one can stop. A well-planned crowd control system could prevent almost all these deaths. Yet, we rarely conduct safety audits of event venues, and temporary structures with hanging electric wires are often approved without inspection. Crowd flow patterns, maximum density thresholds, and emergency evacuation routes are rarely calculated in advance. In developed countries, these are standard procedures for any public event, religious or otherwise.
The deeper problem: a lack of civic discipline
Beyond administrative failure lies a social problem, the absence of discipline and civic sense in public spaces. We Indians often do not want to be in a queue and many times look for our contacts for a VVIP darshan, but at the cost of those who are already waiting in the queues for hours. You must have observed that we many times push, jostle, and break lines, convinced that our personal urgency overrides collective order. This isn’t simply bad manners; it is a learned social behaviour. The tragedy lies in our education system. From our childhood, we are hardly taught to wait our turn, respect public space, or follow instructions. Our education system prizes academic excellence but ignores moral science, civic awareness, and practical life skills. In countries like Japan or Singapore, schoolchildren learn from an early age how to stand in line, evacuate calmly during emergencies, and help others in distress. In India, disaster preparedness is treated as a theoretical topic at best, a chapter in a textbook rather than a life skill. If civic discipline were embedded in our schooling system, we would grow up understanding that order saves lives. Children should learn not just mathematics and language, but also how to respond in crowded situations, provide first aid, and remain calm in crises. A single lesson in discipline could prevent a hundred deaths later in life.
Sometimes, the same faith that brings people together can also put us in danger. Many devotees believe that “nothing bad can happen in God’s presence,” and therefore take unnecessary risks. But faith cannot be an excuse for fatalism. In 2016, at the Simhastha Kumbh in Ujjain, several people were killed in a similar crush. The Vaishno Devi shrine, one of the country’s most visited temples, has witnessed a couple of stampedes over the years despite attempts to regulate entry. These tragedies expose a dangerous complacency among both the public and the authorities. Temple committees and local administrations often underestimate turnout or over-rely on volunteers without adequate training. Pilgrims, driven by religious fervour, ignore warnings and surge forward for a glimpse of the idol or religious relics.
The solution is not to curb faith, but to regulate it intelligently. Technology can help with online registrations, crowd sensors, and entry slot systems can limit overcrowding. The Vaishno Devi Shrine Board’s digital registration system, introduced after past stampedes, is an example worth emulating nationwide. Modern technology offers several tools to prevent stampedes. Drones and CCTV cameras can provide real-time images of crowd density. AI-based software can analyse footage and alert authorities when certain areas become dangerously packed. Loudspeaker announcements, mobile alerts, and well-trained on-ground teams can then direct people to safer routes.
But technology is only as effective as the people using it. India urgently needs a dedicated cadre of trained crowd managers, a mix of police, disaster-response personnel, and volunteers who understand crowd psychology. Managing a crowd requires not just physical control but emotional intelligence, calming people, preventing panic, and communicating clearly. Regular mock drills should be mandatory for all major religious sites and public venues. District administrations must coordinate with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) to simulate real-time scenarios. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) already has clear guidelines for crowd safety, including design specifications for entry and exit points, communication protocols, and emergency response plans. Yet, these remain largely on paper. There are no penalties for violations, and after every tragedy, either inquiries are quietly buried or we forget the mishappening once the headlines fade.
Safety is not merely a logistical issue; it is cultural. A country that values order will naturally value life. We have witnessed, discipline is often enforced by fear of fines, of police, of punishment. We badly need to shift in mindset and reset discipline as a must, rather than that we are being forced to obey. It should be seen as mutual respect. A continuing public awareness campaign is needed, like the Swachh Bharat Mission, which could focus on promoting “Safe India”: awareness about crowd behaviour, public discipline, and emergency preparedness. Let us rope in role models, like Bollywood celebrities, sportspersons, and religious leaders who could lend their voices to spread the message that patience and calmness are acts of faith, not weakness. Moreover, the media also needs to change. Journalists need to start writing or doing coverage as preventive awareness rather than knee-jerk reporting post-disaster. Instead of merely showing grief and chaos, channels should educate viewers about safety measures and responsible crowd behaviour.
Simple reforms can make a difference. Introduce compulsory life skills and civic-behaviour lessons in schools, teaching crowd safety, first aid, and emergency response. Enforce NDMA guidelines strictly. Make organisers, religious place trusts, event planners, or local officials personally accountable for negligence. Deploy AI-based monitoring, real-time crowd alerts, and mandatory mock drills for all large gatherings. India prides itself on its spiritual strength and cultural unity. Let us all vow to cultivate self-discipline and preparedness as both personal and national virtues. Tragedies like Srikakulam will keep repeating if we still do not learn lessons from past incidents. Each stampede death is not just a statistic; it reflects how lightly we value human life. It is time we learn that devotion and discipline must go hand in hand, and in future, no one has to suffer so unnecessarily.
Surinder Singh Oberoi,
National Editor Greater Kashmir
