Goa temple stampede that killed 6 was ‘entirely preventable’, says probe report
The stampede at a temple in Goa, which killed six persons earlier this month, was “entirely preventable”, The Indian Express quoted the report submitted by a government-appointed committee as saying.
The stampede on May 3 took place because of a “combination of poor planning, lack of enforcement, ignored directives and inadequate infrastructure”, said the report released by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday.
Besides the six deaths, more than 100 persons were also injured in the incident, which took place at the Lairai Devi temple in Shirgao. An annual festival that draws a large crowd commenced at the temple on May 2.
The report flagged shortcomings in planning by the temple trust, which organises the festival, the district administration, the police and the village panchayat, The Indian Express reported.
The “absence of basic crowd control infrastructure, disregard for specific administrative instructions and failure to utilise modern surveillance tools” contributed to the incident, it said.
“The immediate trigger was overcrowding on the sloped pathway between Tali [holy pond] and Homkhand [fire pit], compounded by the sudden surge and forward movement of a group of [devotees], disregarding the protocol, which caused the fall of a person and a subsequent domino effect,” the report was quoted as saying.
The incident took place because of inadequate crowd risk assessment, absence of unidirectional circulation...
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