Editorial: Kumbh without the crush
Such has been the stampede-proneness of our religious events and so poor our record of managing crowds at the simplest of functions that one cannot but harbour a sense of anxiety for the safety of the 45-crore people who are expected to congregate on a 2,000 acre stretch of the banks of river Ganga over the next 40 days.
Representative image
As the once in 12 years spectacle, Maha Kumbh Mela gets going on Monday, at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, recent crowd-surge tragedies—one at a cinema theatre in Hyderabad in December, and another at a ticket counter for pilgrims in Tirupati last week—must serve as cautionary tales for the organisers of the massive event. Such has been the stampede-proneness of our religious events and so poor our record of managing crowds at the simplest of functions that one cannot but harbour a sense of anxiety for the safety of the 45-crore people who are expected to congregate on a 2,000 acre stretch of the banks of river Ganga over the next 40 days.
As is their wont, organisers of the Maha Kumbh trot out impressive numbers and names of new-fangled technologies to assure us that everything has been taken care of. An impressively abbreviated ICCC (Integrated Command and Control Centre) will monitor every nook of the festivity through 2,750 CCTV cameras bolstered by AI. Over 37,000 police personnel will be deployed on the ground, and cyber experts and intelligence squads will monitor feedback from crowd density sensors placed at multiple points amidst the pilgrim throng. Automated water towers will be on standby for fire breakouts. Underwater drones equipped with advanced imaging will patrol the riverbed. Remote-controlled buoys, real-time data analytics, GIS mapping, what could go wrong?
The scale and scope of the arrangements are impressive, but as the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) says in its guidelines for stampede prevention, trivial occurrences such as a policeman trying to deter an unruly pilgrim by brandishing his baton or the sudden opening of a gate to release a pent-up crowd can trigger mayhem.
In fact, those were just the triggers for the crowd-surge incidents in the past two months. On December 5, a popular star's bouncers kept his fans at bay and then suddenly yielded, leading to the death of a woman in the ensuing crush. In the Tirupati incident on Jan 5, a policeman opened a gate to let out a woman needing medical attention, only to be overcome by the rush of ticket-seekers waiting outside. Frequently, adverse events occur because organisers haven’t taken the most basic precautions. In Kerala, MLA Uma Thomas suffered grievous injuries when she fell 15 feet from the dais of a public function because of feeble barricading.
High technology is useful to monitor micro events but a gathering of the scale of the Maha Kumbh requires a broader preventative approach based on inferences from predictive data, crowd and movement management, pilgrim psychology, stakeholder involvement and rigorous training and sensitisation of personnel. Often, stampedes have occurred at religious events in India because of poor communication by the authorities. Prominently displayed, easily understandable signage and public address systems are mandatory for any gathering in India.
It's a cause for some concern that the UP government has sought to turn the Maha Kumbh into an economic opportunity. It has set apart a budget of Rs 6,990 crore for the mela, expecting it to generate revenues to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore. Its plans are aimed at using the mela to impart exuberance to the economy and so its head has been turned towards floating jetties, water sports, temple tourism, luxury living and such like. While it must be tempting to treat the mela like the Olympics, it must be tempered with some sobriety. An incident-free mela would be successful enough.
