Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
The tragedy that occurred at the Darbar of Mata Vaishno Devi located 10 kilometers from the base camp Katra town, in district Reasi of JK-UT in the wee hours of Saturday has left us shocked. The holy cave shrine atop Trikuta hills in Katra is among the most revered pilgrimage sites in the country. The devotees have swarmed at the shrine to pay their obeisance at the concluding hours of outgoing year and to seek blessings of Mata Vaishno Devi so as to begin their New Year journey hassle free. In Bhagavad Gita Bhagwan Krishna speaks about death, rather strongly. He says that death in this material world is inevitable. So the reality is that no one is undying but death in such a situation as it happened at the doorstep of deity is unforgettable by the family members of the dying fellow? The loss of precious lives remained a matter of discussion during the whole day on 1st January 2022 and mostly people condensed their remarks towards lack of supervision by the ‘Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board’ popularly called the ‘Shrine Board’, set up in August 1986 under the provisions of the ‘Jammu and Kashmir Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988’, that precipitated the stampede. The pilgrimage to this shrine is regulated by the ‘Shrine Board’ through police and there is an exclusive police station at the Bhawan itself. Reportedly there were no checks in place to regulate crowds and eyewitnesses’ version, that remained as focus and was resonating throughout day on different TV channels, points out that those without ‘Yatra Tickets’ were allowed to enter the shrine, leading to an uncontrollable crush of people near gate number 3. When the tragic accident happened there was no way to leave because of the large number of devotees milling about the shrine. People started pushing and shoving and some fell down on the ground and passed out, causing a panic that resulted in the stampede, a sudden frenzied rush of the devotees. No one was checking e-tickets or COVID reports that were made for visiting pilgrims. The authorities did not have any medical arrangements to deal with such a situation, no ambulances or wheelchairs. Nothing but mismanagement was the cause for this tragic accident. The administration issues orders to observe Corona protocol and its implementation is confined to the easy catch but miserably fail to implement them at places where thousands of people gather and the place where the stampede happened is one of them. The stampede at Shrine was a preventable tragedy, had the New Year rush event planners/administration applied their good senses for deployment of extra force to regulate devotees at various points reroute to Shrine. Had there been a sensible issuance of Yatra Tickets that were issued from base camp and properly checked at next points the congregation of lakhs of devotees at destination would have been curtailed. Risk assessment is essential to the planning of mass gathering. Using risk assessment and risk management to preparedness planning can facilitate a successful mass gathering. The core of the risk assessment is to ask what could happen and how likely it would happen. This appears to be totally missing. The administration should have a plan on the implementation of an emergency preparedness system, in order to improve the rapid emergency response during mass gatherings in the Shrine that was seen at base camp much earlier to the New Year. Yatra Tickets should have been issued accordingly but free flow of their issuance for making money is the prime cause of this tragedy and irresponsible behavior of the Shrine Board. There should have been a communication system to inform the devotees at the base camp Katra and other locations to inform about the number of devotees to be allowed to proceed towards Shrine. There should have been regular advisory warnings and special announcements about this system both at Katra as well as at the main deity destination. This all was missing. As emergency medical services are responsible for providing easy access when required in order to perform rapid rescue, this was reported to be in shambles. Shrine Board/police authorities cannot absolve of its negligence on these issues. On the contrary, the Shrine Board/local administration should have evaluated the event, summarized the shortcomings and issued guidelines. One of the recognized complexities in mass gatherings is different players involved. The devotees may not understand the risks, roles and their responsibilities associated with the mass gatherings. The devotees obsessed with passion cannot be isolated as from blame for the stampede. They are equally responsible for the tragedy. A high-level inquiry has been ordered into the stampede. The Inquiry Committee will be headed by Principal Secretary (Home) with ADGP, Jammu and Divisional Commissioner, Jammu as members. Concluding it is not beneficial to forbid all the mass gatherings because of the spontaneity and uncontrollability. On the contrary, the Shrine Board and those responsible to regulate events should evaluate the event, summarize the mistakes and learn the lessons so as to provide guidance to future mass gatherings.