At least 15 people are believed to have died, while about 70 others were injured in a stampede at the Mahakumbh Mela in Prayagraj on Wednesday. Thousands of devotees gathered before dawn Friday to take a holy dip on Mauni Amavasya, the most auspicious day of the festival when the incident happened. This year’s event was particularly meaningful because a rare celestial alignment had not occurred in 144 years.
The unprecedented rush resulted in chaos even though extra measures had been put in place to make it secure. Special trains and buses were arranged by authorities to deal with the expected record number of 100 million pilgrims lining up for the holy dip. However, the administration was tight-lipped about the fatalities.
Millions of devotees began descending on Prayagraj on Tuesday to take part in the Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest religious gathering in the world. According to a belief, bathing in the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers washes off sins, and they are taken to salvation. But in the deadliest of massacres, a similar disaster in 2013 left at least 36 dead.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested immediate relief measures. Meanwhile, Modi was monitoring the situation and Adityanath is urging devotees to not go ahead and bathe at the confluence and instead bathe at the nearest Ganga banks. “All ghats are people bathing peacefully. I’m asking you to follow administrative instructions and not spread rumors,” he wrote on X.
The sacred ‘Amrit Snan’ was suspended on the day after the stampede. Bodies, the injured, and mangled belongings lay scattered on the street, and people struggled to escape viral videos and images. It has yet again drawn attention to the difficulties in controlling such a congregation.
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