PANAJI
Every year, religious faith drives thousands of devotees in Goa to the popular Devi Lairai temple in Shirgao in Bicholim taluka.
However, this year, for a few of them, the journey proved to be the last of their lives. The temple stampede that killed six, including a woman and a minor, laid bare the gaps in the State administration’s crowd management skills.
Interestingly, despite stampedes being identified as one of the human-induced disasters, the State Disaster Management Plan (SDMP) 2024 has nothing to offer to tackle such situations. Moreover, temples are not even part of the disaster management plan.
According to experts, Goa, though not vulnerable to stampedes, lacks efficient crowd management, as highlighted in the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) crowd management guidelines. Considering that tens of thousands of devotees throng temples during annual jatra or festivities, crowd management, infrastructure, and other disaster management protocols had to be in place.
The SDMP, taking into account the vulnerability, has classified the types of disasters into two categories: Natural Disasters “ Gusty Winds, Heavy Rains, Thunder & Lightning Strikes/Cloudbursts, Floods, Landslides, Biological Hazards, Heatwave, Tsunami, Earthquakes. Human-Induced Disasters “ Fires including Forest Fires, Drowning Incidents, Landslides (Mining Areas), Industrial Hazards, Boat Capsize, Road/Railway/Aircraft Accidents, Terrorism/Stampede/Riots.
According to the plan, both North and South Goa districts are vulnerable to human-induced disasters including, but not limited to, drowning incidents; landslides (mining areas), boat capsizing, aircraft accidents, terrorism/stampede/riots.
No plan for stampede
Despite this, the plan has no specific action plan or response or guidelines in place with regard to stampedes or drowning, while the entire plan has focused on natural calamities like flooding, landslides, earthquakes, etc.
Following the recent stampede, the State government has been criticised for lacking a comprehensive disaster plan, particularly regarding crowd management. Though the temple committee gave a ‘clean chit’ to the State administration, the opposition argued that the State's preparedness was inadequate, citing a lack of proper crowd management systems, emergency response mechanisms, and a failure to learn from previous incidents like the Maha Kumbh stampede in Prayagraj.
A senior official in the revenue department said that in Goa, taking into account the larger religious gatherings, especially in Hindu temples, there is a need for long-term perspectives for infrastructure development, which should depend on popularity, periodicity of the event, terrain, local population, roads, economy, etc.
For example, in Shirgao, the planning should have been done considering the narrow lanes leading to the temple, permissions for stalls on either side, past experiences, etc.
The SDMP speaks about response measures that are to be taken immediately after receiving early warning, anticipating an impending disaster, or post-disaster in cases where an event occurs without warning.
The primary goal of responding to a disaster is saving lives, protecting property, the environment, and meeting the basic needs of humans and other living beings after the disaster. The immediate focus will be on search and rescue of those affected and on evacuating those likely to be affected by the disaster or secondary disaster that is likely to happen.
“Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a cross-cutting responsibility that needs to be ‘owned’ by all government agencies rather than by a single nodal department or agency designated for it,” the plan stated.
