Media365
On Saturday, as I was returning from the Durga Puja celebrations in West London, I learnt the ominous news of a deadly stampede at Chorbagan in North Kolkata. At least 19 people have been killed and over 25 injured. In crowd crushes like this, women and children so often bear the brunt.
Kolkata has celebrated Durga Puja for a long time, and in my living memory I cannot recall a deadly stampede during Pujo. On the contrary, Durga Puja in Kolkata has always been a mesmerising collage of artistry, scale, diversity and organisational excellence — something that anyone fortunate enough to have lived in the city, as I have, remembers and cherishes fondly. At first glance, therefore, this stampede seemed deeply odd.
I have spent several years studying crowded, time-bound and emergent mega events such as the Kumbh Mela. If there is one thing I know about such events, Durga Puja included, it is that they succeed because of the vast institutional memory and knowledge embedded in a diverse set of grassroots stakeholders who make them possible. Durga Puja in Kolkata is a remarkably intelligent system, in which decades — sometimes even centuries — of organisational knowledge allow organisers to proactively offer visitors an experience that is both memorable and safe.
People in crowds move in predictable patterns. Good planning rests on a handful of principles: Spillover areas, multiple entries and exits, calm and timely communication, and proactive crowd management through a web of volunteers and security personnel, now further aided by predictive technology. Together, these keep crowds reasonably disciplined and stave off stampedes and chaos.
When stampedes and near-stampedes do occur, they tend to stem from a familiar set of causes: Poor information, such as a last-minute change of platform; rumours, including of a stampede itself, which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy; improper flow management that admits far more people than a space can hold; the absence of a reasonable spillover area, leaving too many people in a narrow space with nowhere to go; or the blocking of normal flow for reasons such as VIP movement. Experienced organisers know these factors well, and they responsibly and proactively work to avoid them.
The Chorbagan Puja, now in its 91st year, has nearly a century of organising experience behind it. That is what made it all the more surprising that a puja with such deep experience could not prevent a stampede.
From what has been reported so far, the crush took place after a sudden downpour sent people waiting outside rushing towards the popular pandal for shelter, creating a surge on an already busy weekend. Eyewitnesses have described a very narrow entrance, an equally narrow exit, and a lane leading to the pandal with no lighting. Initial information from the administration suggests the rush was set off by a hasty announcement asking the crowd to leave, fearing the pandal may collapse.
None of these is a novel risk. Narrow exits, no spillover space, a sudden change in conditions and panic-inducing announcements to an anxious crowd are precisely the factors I described above. Such “surprises” — rain included — are quite common at events like the Kumbh and Durga Puja, and organisers usually know very well how to handle them.
However, according to reports, the organising committee of the event — the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durgotsav Samity underwent a change of leadership this year and entered its 91st year under a restructured committee. While organisation committees are not monoliths and they often change, they must have ample continuity to ensure that their institutional knowledge and memory are not lost. A key question that matters for crowd safety is: Did the operational knowledge of the previous organisers — the volunteers, the routines, the contingency plans for rain and rush — carry over to the new team? Only an independent investigation can answer this question.
What we can say with certainty, though, is that festivals like Durga Puja are not spectacles. They are sophisticated missions in crowd management, in which concern for safety must always be paramount. Just as we would always have experts fly an aeroplane, we must always ensure events like the Pujo are organised by people with deep experience.
This stampede is an unfortunate chapter in the glorious history of Durga Puja in Kolkata. All I can hope is that we learn from these mistakes and ensure that no life is ever lost during the Pujo again.
The writer is associate professor of Business Management and Health Sciences Director ofBSc/MSci Business and Health at UCL Global Business School for Health, University College London
