Puri: Three people died and more than fifty were injured in a stampede near Shri Gundicha Temple (Lord Jagannath’s birthplace) at Sharadha Bali, Puri, early Sunday morning, casting a shadow over the crowd management by the authorities during the ongoing Rath Yatra festival.
The deceased have been identified as eighty-year-old Premakanta Mohanty, thirty-six-year-old Basanti Sahoo, and forty-two-year-old Prabhati Das. Nine devotees who suffered severe breathlessness during the incident were hospitalised. While three injured died, the rest are stable and under medical observation.
People who witnessed the incident said more than 500 devotees were seated on plastic mats awaiting darshan of the three deities—Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and Devi Subhadra—on their journey to their aunt’s place (Shri Gundicha Temple) when two trucks carrying wooden logs entered the congested area. As workers began unloading the logs, the area became chaotic. This caused panic among the devotees, triggering a stampede in which several were trampled. Eyewitnesses said there was utter confusion, and a special way was made for VIPs while the public was asked to exit from a distance. People started exiting from the entrance itself, which resulted in the crowd surging.
The stampede occurred at about 4:00 am Sunday. Thousands of devotees had gathered at Sharadha Bali to witness the Pahada rituals.
Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi expressed deep anguish over the incident and offered an official apology: “My government and I seek forgiveness from all Jagannath devotees. We express our condolences to the families of those devotees whose lives were lost at Sharadha Bali and pray to Mahaprabhu Jagannath to grant them the strength to bear this profound sorrow.” The Chief Minister termed the mishap as “unforgivable negligence” and assured the public of swift and strict action. Majhi announced financial assistance of Rs. 25 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.
Chief Minister Majhi also suspended Puri Police Deputy Commissioner Bishnu Charan Pati and Police Commandant Ajay Padhi and transferred DM and Collector Siddharth Swain and Superintendent of Police of Puri, Binit Agarwal, from their posts, appointing Chanchal Rana and Pinak Mishra as DM and SP of Puri, respectively. The state government has appointed senior bureaucrat Arvind Agrawal to oversee the smooth conduct of Rath Yatra at Puri following the tragic stampede caused by mismanagement.
The government has ordered an administrative inquiry into the incident, which will be headed by the Development Commissioner.
The state Director General of Police has reached Puri to take stock of the situation. Additional police force has been deployed in the town.
On Friday, during the Rath Yatra, about 600 devotees were hospitalised due to exhaustion and overcrowding. Most were discharged after first aid. Twelve patients remain in the intensive care unit, while one critically ill devotee has been moved to the Government Medical College Hospital at Cuttack.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge expressed anguish over the incident and criticised the Odisha government for a “serious lapse” in crowd management. He said that the incident reflected “negligence and mismanagement” that was “inexcusable” and called for a thorough probe.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi described the Puri stampede as deeply tragic and called upon the Odisha Government to swiftly provide relief to the affected people. In a social media message, Gandhi said, “My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and I hope for the speedy recovery of the injured devotees.” He appealed to Congress party workers to extend all possible help on the ground and underlined the importance of proper crowd control at large religious gatherings.
Opposition Leader and former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in a social media post, expressed his condolences to the families of the devotees who died in the stampede. He said, “Occurring just a day after the abysmal failure of crowd management during the Rath Yatra that left hundreds injured, [this] exposes the government’s glaring incompetence in ensuring a peaceful festival for devotees.”