| Morning chants at the Jodhpur shrine turned into shrieks of hapless victims |
HORRENDOUS TRAGEDY: Some of the injured and their anxious kin wait for help, after the deadly stampede in the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur on Tuesday, the first day of the Navratra festival season. Several other pilgrims lie fatally crushed.
JODHPUR: Tragedy struck the Sun City of Rajasthan on the first day of the nine-day navaratra festivities on Tuesday when 147 pilgrims were killed in an early morning stampede outside the Chamunda Devi temple on a hillock adjoining the Mehrangarh Fort.
Most of the victims were either boys or men in the age group of 15-40 years. Fifty-nine people sustained injuries.
Of the deceased, two persons were from Sangli in Maharashtra, one from Punjab and the rest from Jodhpur and adjoining areas. The bodies of most of the victims were released to the relatives by afternoon.
However, there is some scepticism about the tally as the initial count of bodies released from some half-a-dozen hospitals here had touched 196. The district and divisional authorities explained the disparity in the figure to counting some bodies twice. A clear picture in this regard would emerge only on Wednesday.
The victims were either trampled to death or had died of suffocation. Some pilgrims standing in the men’s queue lost balance on the slopy terrain, made slippery by the flowing coconut water on the road leading to the hill shrine. The installation (stapana) ceremony for the navaratras was scheduled between 6.23 a.m. and 7 .37 a.m. Around 9,000 people had stood in queues on the 2-km mountain road. The morning chants soon turned into shrieks of hapless victims as the commotion in the blind alley type of lanes led to unprecedented chaos.
Eyewitnesses talked about some pushing and shoving in the queue by some pilgrims for an early darshan. The authorities rejected reports of any bomb scare and denied any instance of eve-teasing led to the stampede.
“There were separate queues for men, women and children. As the stampede took place in the men’s queue all the victims happened to be men. People started falling over one another. The deaths were due to suffocation and choking,” Divisional Commissioner of Jodhpur Kiran Soni Gupta told The Hindu on phone.
About 20 people died on the spot and the others in the hospitals, including the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, Mathura Das Mathur Hospital, Kamla Nehru Hospital and Goyal Hospital.
Ms. Gupta said 57 injured people were out of danger. The condition of two persons in the intensive care unit was critical.
The help of the Defence forces was sought in relief and evacuation of the affected. Rajasthan Governor Shailendra Kumar Singh, while expressing anguish over the catastrophe, felt temple premises in general should have better arrangements for pilgrims on special days.
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who reached Jodhpur from Banswara in the afternoon, announced a relief of Rs.2 lakh to the families of the deceased and Rs.50, 000 to those seriously injured.
A distressed Ms. Raje, suffering from high fever, reportedly lost her balance at the Banswara helipad when she was informed about the tragedy. She was to be taken to a guesthouse of the Tripura Sundari temple for resting.
Talking to journalists in Jodhpur after visiting the hospitals, Ms. Raje said the Additional Chief Secretary would hold an inquiry into the circumstances which led to the tragedy. The government later announced a judicial inquiry by a retired Rajasthan High Court judge. The report will be submitted in three months’ time.
The scion of the Jodhpur royal family, Gaj Singh, who visited the site, said he would institute a private inquiry. Chamunda Devi is the family deity of the Jodhpur aristocracy.
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