The growing number of stampedes at religious and cultural gatherings is deeply concerning. The recent tragedy at the Kashi Bugga Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh—where nine devotees lost their lives and dozens were injured—has once again highlighted the urgent need for better crowd management. Temples in South India are often regarded as better managed than those in the North, yet this series of incidents has raised troubling questions. Earlier this year, following a stampede at the Tirupati Temple on January 5, the government announced several measures to maintain order and prevent such disasters in temples and other crowded places. However, just ten months later, another stampede occurred.
During the celebration of Devuthani Ekadashi, the Kashi Bugga Temple became dangerously overcrowded. There was only a single entry and exit route, and ongoing construction had left mud, stones, potholes, and exposed iron rods scattered across the premises. As devotees slipped and fell, panic spread through the crowd, leading to chaos and tragedy. Ironically, the temple had been opened for darshan only four months earlier, in August, after ten years of construction. Modeled architecturally on the Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Temple, it drew an unexpectedly large number of devotees.Because it is a private temple, it does not come under the jurisdiction of the state’s Department of Temples. The management failed to notify the government or district administration about the event and made no arrangements for crowd control—a grave lapse that is now being investigated. This raises crucial questions: Is it acceptable to hold such a large-scale religious event without informing the authorities? Why was a safety audit not conducted? And why was public entry permitted at a construction site?
Devotees visit temples with faith and emotional fervor, seeking spiritual fulfillment. Yet this very intensity can lead to dangerous crowd behavior when left unmanaged. The tragedies at Hathras and the Maha Kumbh Mela serve as stark reminders of how emotional devotion can quickly turn into panic. Similar patterns are also seen at political rallies, where excitement and eagerness to see leaders can cause crowds to spiral out of control. Ultimately, it is the duty of organizers to understand crowd psychology and ensure proper safety arrangements. Investigations into most stampede incidents consistently reveal one common factor—administrative failure and organizational negligence.
A judicial inquiry into the Hathras incident found that organizers deliberately underreported the crowd size and that the administration had neglected prior preparations. Security lapses were also revealed in the Karur incident, where the rally site lacked adequate barriers and emergency exits. The railway administration’s responsibility in the stampede at New Delhi Railway Station was clear, as a large crowd was expected due to the Maha Kumbh Mela, yet proper arrangements were not made on the platforms. Experts believe that crowd management is not taken seriously in India and is limited to the deployment of police forces, whereas in reality, crowd management is a specialized field that requires coordination of psychology, technology, and emergency response. In developed countries, special crowd management plans are developed for large events and trained teams are deployed to implement them.
In June of this year, a stampede outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru during public celebrations celebrating the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s IPL victory also resulted in the deaths of several people.
… Any place where there is excessive crowding can become uncontrolled chaos, potentially leading to stampedes. However, a failure to plan, learn, and act can turn these vulnerabilities into tragedies. With the exception of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)’s crowd management guidelines, no state or city in India has a uniform crowd management protocol. There is no law mandating how to plan, execute, and manage large public events. Furthermore, the NDMA and state and district-level disaster management authorities are policy-making and coordinating bodies. While the NDMA and SDMA are often utilized during natural disasters, these authorities are primarily suited to disasters where the devastation lasts for days or weeks. They may not be as suitable for handling a stampede-like situation, as stampedes can occur suddenly, often within minutes, and the situation can spiral out of control. As a result, the burden of crowd management often falls on police and administrative officials, who are already overstretched. Many of them lack adequate training and the necessary equipment to control stampedes.
A permanent and professional crowd management system needs to be developed to monitor and guide large events. Drones, CCTV, and new technologies are now available, and these should be utilized as much as possible. Artificial intelligence-based crowd analysis systems should also be used to measure crowd density and movement. Legal provisions must be further tightened to save lives.
