Hyderabad: At least 27 people, most of them women, died and 34 were injured in a massive stampede during a ritual dip in the river Godavari during a Hindu pilgrimage on Tuesday.
The tragedy occurred at Gate No 1 of the Pushkaralu Ghat at Rajahmundry, 450km east of Hyderabad on Tuesday morning as “Pushkaralu” or the Kumbh of the South began.
“The injured were taken to the local hospital where they are being treated,” said Arun Kumar, the district collector of East Godavari. There was a huge rush of the pilgrims to be among the first to take the dip in the river leading to the stampede.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was first to take the dip at 6.26am, was monitoring the situation from the control room.
“Problems have surfaced as more pilgrims than the capacity were coming to the Ghat at Rajahmundry,” Naidu said, asking the people to use the other Ghats or bathing points.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his shock and grief over the incident and spoke to the Chief Minister Naidu over phone.
“Deeply pained at the loss of lives due stampede at Rajahmundry. My condolences to the families of the deceased and prayers with the injured”, Modi tweeted.
He said the state government was working to restore normality in the area.
“It is a very unfortunate tragedy. Despite making elaborate arrangements the incident occurred as the people rushed to only one bathing point,” Naidu said assuring that the government would extend full help to relatives of the victims.
Later Naidu visited the government hospital at Rajahmundry where the injured were being treated. He announced compensation of Rs1 million (Dh57,874) to the families of each of the deceased.
The stampede occurred soon after Chief Minister Naidu along with wife Bhunveswari and other family members took the dip amid tight security and moved to his bus.
The victims were mostly from East and West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts.
Officials said 24 million people were expected to take part in the 12 day long festival along the river Godavari in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states.
“The stampede at Kothagammam Ghat was triggered when some women lost their foot wear in the melee and they tried to recover it hampering the moment of the people,” a police official said.
“Stampede continued for more than 20 minutes. It was a frightening situation with the women and children crying for help. The policemen on duty were helpless and it took more than one hour to bring the situation under control,” said V. Satyanarayana, a witness.
Shocking scenes prevailed around the Ghat No. 1 with bodies of victims lying all over and their relatives wailing and crying for help. Pilgrims alleged that no ambulance was available near the scene of the stampede and help reached very late as all the roads were jam-packed with people.
Officials said that in a small place like Rajahmundry the rush of hundreds of thousands of people at once has made the situation uncontrollable and everything had come to a standstill.
Thousands of pilgrims, riding on buses, trains and other vehicles had started reaching Rajahmundry two days in advance to be first to take the holy dip. “There is a false belief that taking holy dip in the river on the first day of the festival will be more auspicious. It is the same taking dip on the first or any other day”, said Swamy Swaroopanand, a pontiff.
In neighbouring Telangana, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were taking part in the Pushkarams in five districts along the course of Godavari, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was first to take the dip at Dharmapuri town of Karimnagar district. Elaborate security arrangements were made there to regulate the flow of the people.
Kumbh of South was also being observed in neighbouring Mahrashtra from today where the river Godavari originates from western Ghats near Nasik and flows for 1465 kms before joining the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao expressed his grief over the loss of life in the stampede in Rajahmundry. He directed the officials in Telangana to take necessary precautions to prevent any such mishap during pushkaram in Telangana.
Some of the victims were identified as 65 year old Rudraraju Lakshmi from West Godavari, 52 year old Krishna Kumari from East Godavari Saramma from Vijayanagaram and G Mangamma from Visakhapatanam, Krishnaiah and Ratnam from Yanam.
Normally Godavari Pushkaram takes place once in 12 years but this year’s festival assumed more significance as it is called Maha Pushkaram, once in 144 year event due to the unique formation of stars as Sun and Jupiter entered the zodiac sing of Leo today.
