Death toll in Mandher Devi temple stampede at 258

[Guest guest]

Wednesday January 26, 6:01 PM

 

Death toll in temple stampede at 258

 

By Punit Paranjpe

 

WAI, India (Reuters) - Authorities began an investigation on Wednesday into

the cause of a stampede and fire near a Hindu temple in western India that

killed more than 250 people during an annual pilgrimage.

 

Of the 258 who died, more than 200 had been identified, said Subrao Patil,

the top district official. More than half those who died were women and at

least 14 children were also killed.

 

"When I arrived here about an hour after the incident, people were in a

panic. There was a lot of confusion and the injured and dead people were

lying all about," Patil told Reuters.

 

"We first had to control and clear the crowd, then gather the dead bodies

and transport them to the hospitals."

 

A police official had earlier told Reuters the toll was 267, but later

scaled back the number.

 

Anxious relatives and pilgrims from villages too remote to have heard about

the stampede arrived at the temple on Wednesday. District officials tried to

get the word out to stop devotees from hampering relief efforts, although

the temple remained open.

 

The stampede broke out on Tuesday when about 300,000 people converged on the

Mandher Devi temple, on a hilltop near Wai, 260 km southeast of Bombay in

the western state of Maharashtra.

 

Scores were crushed to death on the narrow path to the temple, and many

bodies were charred. The remains of tin-roofed food stalls smouldered near

the temple and adjoining settlement on the craggy hilltop about 4,000 ft

(1,200 metres) above sea-level.

 

As they were cleared, many of the bodies were covered in the green saris

traditionally offered to the goddess, Kalubai.

 

Witnesses said the stampede started at around midday after pilgrims slipped

on the temple's steep stone steps, which were wet with coconut water spilled

from fruit presented as offerings.

 

"My mother was just ahead of me, and she slipped on the steps, which were

wet," one woman, who suffered minor injuries, told a TV news channel. "I

also fell, and I saw that several people were also slipping and falling into

the crowd."

 

THROWING STONES

 

One pilgrim at the base of the hill at the time said word of people slipping

and falling quickly passed through the crowd.

 

"The police began clearing the place, so people got angry and started

throwing stones at the shops," he said.

 

Fire then swept through the roadside stalls selling flowers, sweets and food

after cooking gas cylinders exploded, possibly sparked by an overhead power

cable, officials said.

 

"(The people slipping) appears to have triggered off some rioting by angry

relatives who attacked the nearby food stalls and pulled out the gas

connections, causing a big explosion and fire which in turn led to utter

chaos," a police official told a Reuters photographer at the scene.

 

The official inquiry would help determine the exact sequence of events,

police said.

 

The 300-year-old Mandher Devi temple is popular among lower caste Hindus who

undertake the pilgrimage every January on a full-moon day and participate in

a 24-hour-long festival that includes ritual animal sacrifices to the

goddess.

 

Devotees who were not allowed to reach the temple on Tuesday spent the night

in the open, lighting small fires to keep warm. Many started making their

way home on Wednesday.

 

The Maharashtra governor cancelled celebrations for India's Republic Day on

Wednesday that are usually marked with colourful parades and performances by

school children.

 

The chief minister of Maharashtra visited the temple, announcing

compensation of 100,000 Indian rupees for the dead and a minimum 10,000

rupees for the injured.

 

In 2003, more than 30 people died in a stampede in Nasik, also in

Maharashtra, during the Kumbh Mela.

 

(Additional reporting by Y.P. Rajesh in New Delhi)