{"id":71614,"date":"2025-11-02T11:33:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T06:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=71614"},"modified":"2025-11-03T12:16:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:46:32","slug":"why-stampedes-keep-repeating-in-india-lessons-from-2025-tragedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/why-stampedes-keep-repeating-in-india-lessons-from-2025-tragedies\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Stampedes Keep Repeating in India: Lessons from 2025 Tragedies"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Stampedes Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At least nine people, including children, were killed in a stampede at the <\/span><b>Venkateswara Swamy temple<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Kasibugga, Srikakulam district, on November 1, during Ekadashi celebrations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This marks the third major stampede in Andhra Pradesh this year. Earlier, seven people died in April at Visakhapatnam\u2019s Simhachalam temple after a wall collapse during Akshaya Tritiya, and six were killed in January at Tirupati while queuing for special darshan tickets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Across India, such stampedes at temples, religious festivals, and public gatherings have claimed around 100 lives in 2025 alone, pointing to <\/span><b>persistent lapses in crowd management and safety planning<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Stampedes in 2025: From Victory Rallies to Holy Gatherings<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Bengaluru IPL Victory Parade Turns Fatal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; In June 2025, a victory celebration for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) near Chinnaswamy Stadium turned tragic when a stampede killed at least 12 people.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Religious Processions End in Tragedy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; In May, a religious yatra at Goa\u2019s Shree Lairai Devi Temple in Shirgaon village saw a stampede that killed several devotees.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, in January, at least 30 pilgrims died and over 60 were injured during the Mauni Amavasya bath at the Kumbh in Prayagraj, where poor crowd control was cited as a key factor.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Railway Station Rush Adds to Toll<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; In February, another major tragedy struck when 18 people died and dozens were injured at the New Delhi Railway Station.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stampede occurred late at night as Kumbh pilgrims tried to board a crowded Prayagraj-bound train.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Understanding Why Stampedes Occur<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As per the crowd dynamics experts, people in dense crowds often don\u2019t realise danger until it\u2019s too late.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Crowd behaviour is shaped by non-verbal cues<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like body language, and emotions spread through observation rather than panic contagion.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In densely packed spaces, where personal space is limited (as in India), <\/span><b>reaction time shortens<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, increasing the risk of sudden collapses.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>The Deadly Domino Effect<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In most stampedes, the <\/span><b>main cause of death is compressive asphyxia<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 when <\/span><b>pressure on the chest and ribs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> prevents people from breathing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once someone stumbles and falls, others trip over them, creating a domino effect that leads to pile-ups and trampling.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Why Prevention Fails<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stampedes turn deadly when authorities underestimate crowd size, fail to anticipate localised crushes, or lack quick-response protocols.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A tightly packed crowd, without controlled entry and exit routes, becomes a ticking time bomb, where one small disturbance can spiral into mass casualties within seconds.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Preventing Stampedes: Lessons India Must Learn<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report \u201c<\/span><b>Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d between 2000 and 2022, 3,074 people lost their lives in stampedes across the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past three decades, nearly 4,000 stampede incidents have been recorded, with the NCRB systematically collecting such data since 1996.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Global Comparison<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stampedes are not unique to India. For instance, in 2022, a Halloween celebration in South Korea turned deadly, and in 2010, Germany\u2019s Love Parade festival saw a similar tragedy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, unlike in India, such incidents rarely recur abroad because authorities quickly learn lessons and introduce strict safety protocols to prevent repetition.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Why India Fails to Improve<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s large population gatherings, combined with a frequent disregard for safety norms and crowd control rules, make it far more vulnerable.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The issue is <\/span><b>not just administrative but deeply societal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 marked by poor enforcement, lack of accountability, and a casual public attitude toward rules \u2014 allowing tragedies to repeat year after year despite mounting casualties.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/ap-venkateswara-temple-stampede-why-frequently-india-10340175\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/andhra-pradesh\/andhra-pradesh-venkateswara-swamy-temple-stampede-death-toll-kashibugga-live-updates-november-1-2025\/article70228865.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/andhra-temple-stampede-inquiry-ordered-as-rush-kills-9-devotees-top-developments\/articleshow\/125015807.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ToI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India\u2019s recurring stampedes expose major lapses in crowd control, weak enforcement, and poor safety planning at temples, rallies, and railway stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":71755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,3509,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-71614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-mains-articles","9":"tag-stampedes","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}