Odisha Forum

This incident happened today morning, (saturday, 4th November 2006).

Thousands of worshippers (mostly elders) had been waiting hours to enter the Jagannath Temple by the time the door was opened for prayers on the occasion of "BadaOsha".
Today is the penultimate day of 'Panchuka', the five-day period when Hindus shun all non-vegetarian food. The devotees were queueing up near the 'Jhulana mandap' inside the shrine waiting for an inner door to open.

As soon as the temple door opened the crowd surged forward and some of them in the front tripped and fell. This led to the stampede.

4 devotees died in this and morethan 30 injured. But this did not affect the Srimandira rituals and everything is normal now. the injured are promptly taken care of by other devotees.

It is really a sad incident. this thing has been repeated many times in the history of Puri Jagannath temple as well as various other temples and religious places. What is the solution?
I believe, there should be sufficient police personnel to control these huge crowds. And also action must be taken before such huge crowd is gathered so that the people could be kept separated in small groups and not a huge mass!

If you see the crowd in Jagannath temple, you cant suggest things like making queue or keeping people from gathering together. It would take thousands of policemen for that. But I cannot see a proper solution even.