Prayagraj: It was a foggy morning with hardly any wind, the grey sky hid the sun. It was Martyrs Day, January 30. My memory was fresh with scenes from the recent stampede.
The government death toll stands at 30 for now. I wonder how many more deaths are to be announced as injured devotees – many elderly and women – are fighting for their lives in hospitals across the city. If we believe news reports and videos flashing on national television, the official death toll doesn’t add up. We, the public at the Maha Kumbh Mela, have not been given any details of the injured either.
So I decided to walk around and find out for myself. I decided to follow the rumours. I travelled to sector 17, 20 and 21 – all had been sites of stampedes. Various people told me that a stampede not only took place at the Sangam nose point but separately, situations like stampedes also took place in all these sectors. The general consensus was that many stampede-like incidents have been happening in various parts of the Mela for the two or three days leading up to Mauni Amavasya. There is yet no clarity from the government on this.
I could not verify the number of deaths or injured, but many shopkeepers and locals believe that overall deaths are much more than the current official number.
A report on the media noted that clothes were being carted away in a tractor trolley. This footage has again raised questions on the official death toll.
Irate sadhus clashed with police in sector 9, I overhead.
The Maha Kumbh Mela before the stampede. Photo: Indra Shekhar Singh.
At the Sangam nose area, which was site of the major stampede, people were bathing as if nothing had happened. But sanitation workers had a grim look. When I asked about the deaths, a sanitation worker Subhash, who was reticent at first, later said, “There were so many bodies here just last night,” gesturing around him.
Although a lot of money is being spent on the Maha Kumbh, the infrastructure is grand but has not been able to prevent the tragedy. No heads have rolled yet from among administrators.
Around the Sangam area, I met Jitender from Jaunpur who had visited a local AIIMS Rai Bareilly camp-ICU with 30 beds. It was called the Kendriya Upchikitsa Kendra. He was still looking for relative who went missing in one of the stampedes. “They were shifting ICU patients in Boleros, I overheard that one of them was a heart patient. There were no medicines and no ambulances at the the health centre. The doctors and staff told me that ambulances had been getting dead bodies. Doctors have been on 24-hour duty for the past three days,” he said.
It was a heart-wrenching account to listen to listen to. I started my walk back to sector 18. Walking alongside the Ganga, I got a call from Harsh Sinha, working in a foreign MNC, who was trying to catch a train to Delhi. “We were lucky to find a bike to give us a ride to the station. I had to pay Rs 1,200. Other people were paying Rs 1,600 for an e-rickshaw ride if they are lucky. When we reached the station, we weren’t allowed to enter. I saw hordes of people sleeping on plastic sheets outside the station, helpless. This is not the Kumbh management I imagined,” he said.
As evening fell, I heard music. It was a lively scene with foreign devotees grooving to a fusion of dubstep and bhajans. A male spiritual leader on stage, along with his police escort and foreign disciples, was dancing. Locals were watching. The day was not over.
