Maner (Patna): Ever since the Maha Kumbh started at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh on January 13, Rinku Devi would see on her phone and read in the newspapers that the administrative arrangements for the punya snan (holy dip) of devotees at the Triveni Sangam, where Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati meet, were very good.
This gave her and other women of her village courage.
The 35-year-old lives at the Jeevrakhan Tola village of Maner situated on the bank of the river Sone in rural Patna of Bihar.
She set out for Prayagraj on January 27 at around 11 am. More than a dozen women including her mother-in-law, Siya Devi, accompanied her. All were aged between 35 and 65 years. Most belonged to the Yadav caste.
They took a train from Danapur junction about 20 kilometres away from their village. The train took them to Prayagraj railway station where they got a bus which dropped them near a bridge. From there they walked several kilometres.
When they finally reached a place the ghat on the intervening night of January 28 and 29, Rinku Devi understood that talk of good arrangements were untrue. “There was nothing like that there. There was complete chaos. No policeman for security. No one to show the way,” Rinku Devi said.
Rinku Devi. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray
The women held hands and started moving towards the ghat. “We wanted to take a dip as early as possible. At around 11 pm on January 28, an announcement was made on the mic that common devotees should take a dip between 12 pm and 2 pm, because after that, those from the Akhara will take a dip and at that time, common pilgrims will not be allowed to go to the ghat,” she told The Wire.
They reached a spot closer to the ghat at around 1 am on January 29, when a huge crowd of people started coming towards them. These were people who had already taken a dip. Behind them was a huge crowd who were going to take a dip. “Both crowds collided. It turned into a stampede,” she says.
Rinku Devi and her mother-in-law Siya Devi were pushed by both crowds and fell on the ground. Many people fell on them. Others just ran. Some fell on them. “There must have been 8-9 people on us,” Rinku said. She felt that she would die and she screamed for help. “The locals pulled me out. People were trampling the dead bodies and running away,” she said.
Rinku had lost Siya Devi and the others. Convinced that her mother-in-law was among the pile of bodies, Rinku pleaded with local youth to help look for her.
One Abhishek Singh ultimately recovered Siya Devi’s body and took it to the ambulance, which took her to the makeshift Kendriya Chikitsalaya at Sector 2 in Prayagraj.
Siya Devi is among 11 persons from Bihar who have been reported dead in the stampede at the Kumbh mela. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray
Rinku Devi claimed that the police were initially not allowing her to sit in the ambulance and kept asking her to collect the body from the police station. “But we forcibly boarded the ambulance with the body,” she said. Siya Devi was declared dead in hospital. Her body reached her village in an ambulance on January 30.
Siya Devi is among 11 persons from Bihar who have so far been reported dead in the Maha Kumbh Mela stampede. The Adityanath government has owned up to only 30 deaths, reports have suggested the count could be as many as 70, and Rinku swears that she saw hundreds dead.
“My own mother-in-law’s body was pulled out from under a pile of eight bodies,” she said.
Siya and Rinku Devi’s house. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray.
The Wire spoke to at least half a dozen of devotees who witnessed the stampede that day. Many blamed the fact that there were no separate barricades for the exit of devotees who had already taken a dip and the entry of devotees who wanted to go into the water.
Abhishek Singh, who pulled Siya out of the pile of dead bodies, told The Wire over phone, “Barricades ended 59 metres before the ghats. So everything was open. When it was announced that the Mauni Amavasya is starting now, the huge crowd thronged to the ghat and on the other side there were crowds of devotees who had already taken a dip and wanted to return.”
The women who witnessed and suffered the heart-rending stampede still shudder at the memory of that day. Many who were caught in the stampede are undergoing treatment as they have suffered severe internal injuries.
Almost all the women The Wire talked to said that they did not get any help from administration, even though their clothes had been torn and their money, lost.
Seventy-two-year-old Janaki Devi, of the same village in Bihar, believes that a miracle saved her at the stampede. She, too, is undergoing treatment – four injections a day. She has been advised to get a chest x-ray done. For three or four days after returning, Janaki could not utter a single word out of shock.
Janaki Devi. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray
“I had thought that I was getting old and may die anytime so I should take a holy dip. I had also heard that after 140 years such an auspicious occasion has coincided with the Kumbh. I had no idea that all this would happen,” she said, while sitting on a cot in front of her house in the afternoon. “Now I have decided not to go to Kumbh again. I will die of of the pain I sustained that day,” she added.
Janaki and her woman relatives have been on at least half a dozen pilgrimages, including Kumbh Mela 12 years ago. “That time there was no such chaos. We took the holy dip smoothly,” she said.
Janaki said that on the day of the Mauni Amavasya, an announcement was made to proceed slowly – which they followed. “But, people returning from the other side after taking the dip collided with us. People started running and crushing each other,” she said.
Janaki Devi fell in the stampede and became unconscious. She doesn’t know what happened after that. When she regained consciousness after two hours, she found a blanket on her body. A young man and six or seven women were surrounding her. “I lost my saree in the stampede. So they had wrapped me in a blanket,” she said.
The man who rescued her turned out to be from the Kaimur district of Bihar. He had gone to the Kumbh with his family. He sheltered Janaki at his house for two days and then called her family members after Janaki was able to provide their numbers to him.
“I think he must have been my son in my previous life. If I am alive today, it is due to him. I pray to God that he never faces a single crisis,” Janaki said, adding that she did not get any help from the Kumbh administration.
Seventy-year-old Bhagwaniya Devi, a resident of a neighbouring village, had a harrowing experience. In the stampede some people snatched her bag from her and punched her on the chest.
Bhagwaniya Devi. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray
“Once the stampede started, I was helpless and pleaded with people to save me. Two people came and punched me twice on the chest, snatched my bag and ran away. The bag contained clothes, money and utensils. I fainted due to the punch,” she said.
When she regained consciousness, she was in a safe place and some women, who had come to take a dip in the Kumbh, were taking care of her. “The woman who was taking care of me told me that one of the police personnel who reached the spot thought I was dead and told the other police personnel to put me away in a vehicle. The woman shouted at the police and said that I had stirred,” she said.
After regaining consciousness, Bhagwaniya did not know where to go. No administration official was there to help her. “Government didn’t help in any way. I began walking alone. I was crying. Some people helped me and took me to my village,” she said. She shows a red shawl which a woman gave her as she had lost her clothes in the crush.
Bhagwaniya’s chest still hurts and she is undergoing treatment. “I will never go to Kumbh again,” she said.
Forty-year-old Savita Devi, a woman of the same village who was also part of the group of women is similarly in shock and cannot sleep at night.
Savita Devi, one of the survivors of Kumbh stampede. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray
“I had felt that I will not survive. I did due to god’s grace,” she told The Wire.
She remembered that she was walking behind a man and when the mayhem happened, she caught hold of that man’s bag and followed him for at least two or three kilometres. “I reached the bridge and took the bus to the railway station,” she said.
“I have never seen such horrific sights in my life. When I recall that incident, I shake,” she said.
“I can’t sleep at night. Whenever I sleep, the sound of people crying, asking for help echoes in my ear and I wake up.”
Rajinder Rai who lost his wife Siya Devi in Kumbh stampede. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray.
The death of 61-year-old Siya Devi – mentioned at the beginning of this report – has shaken her husband, 65-year-old Rajinder Rai, to the core. He said that if administration had been in action, such an incident would not have happened.
“It is being said that crores of rupees have been spent on Kumbh. We ask where all this money was spent that a stampede broke out so easily and people died?” he asked.
According to the Uttar Pradesh government, a total of Rs 7,500 crores was spent on the Maha Kumbh Mela.
“I am most troubled by her departure because I was dependent on her. I have four sons, all are married and living separately. She would cook for me and also take care of the cattle in the house. I don’t know how I will survive,” he said.
He expressed anger at the statement of controversial religious preacher Dhirendra Shashri who said that those who died at the Kumbh will attain moksha – deliverance.
“A crowd will crush a person and she will get moksha? My wife was killed,” Rajinder said.
Janaki and Rinku both said that the preacher had reduced the death of people to a joke.
“They had gone to have a holy dip and not to die this way. How can anyone say this?” Rinku asked.
