The Hindu : Front Page : 300 killed in Maharashtra temple stampede

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

300 killed in Maharashtra temple stampede

By Arunkumar Bhatt in Wai
and Mumbai Bureau

WAI (SATARA DT.) JAN. 25. An auspicious day turned into a nightmare today as about 300 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a stampede on the narrow road leading to the Kalubai temple in Mandradevi, 18 km from Wai in Maharashtra's Satara district. Authorities said 270 bodies had been recovered so far.

They were among the thousands who visited the temple on the first day of the 15-day Kalubai Jatra.

According to Chandrakant Kumbhar, Superintendent of Police, Satara, the trouble began when some people fell down on the steps leading to the temple made slippery by devotees breaking coconuts.

The approach was made narrower by the presence of temporary stalls set up for the jatra. People also reported panic triggered by electrical short-circuiting. As the panic set in, angry pilgrims set some of the stalls on fire.

Gas cylinders explode

Subsequently, gas cylinders in these stalls began exploding. Eyewitnesses told The Hindu that about 25 cylinders exploded covering the area in dense smoke.

In the ensuing melee, devotees, a majority of them women and children, were trampled to death. The temple attracts women and girls, and today being the auspicious paush poornima (full moon), a lot of them had thronged the temple.

The conflagration, which spread to an estimated 100 stalls, could not be brought under control as fire tenders could not reach the spot.

A senior police official told The Hindu that the exact number of injured was not known. At least four State transport buses with injured people had been sent to Satara.

Most of the injured and dead were brought to the Wills F. Pierce Memorial Mission Hospital and the Rural Hospital in Wai.

Onlookers broke down as they saw the rows of women and children, many of whom looked as if they were sleeping.

Until late in the evening, bodies were still being brought to the hospitals in buses, private ambulances and vehicles. This was the result of a massive mobilisation of voluntary effort from places such as Satara and Shirur.

At the Rural Hospital, the corridors were crowded with staff and volunteers. Many local doctors stepped in to treat the injured and feed the survivors.

Among them were Dr. M.V. Oswal and his colleagues as well as the Arogya Sena consisting of volunteers from Pune.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Deputy Chief Minister, R.R. Pail, and the Director-General of Police, K.K. Kashyap, flew to Wai where the Chief Minister announced Rs. 1 lakh as compensation to the families of the dead, Rs. 25,000 for the seriously injured and Rs. 10,000 for those with minor injuries.

All official functions for the Republic Day have been cancelled in Maharashtra as a mark of respect for the dead.

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