Analysis | Understanding Stampedes In India
Research on stampedes indicates that they occur mostly in religious festivals, victory processions, and political rallies, wherein there is a surge in attendees.
Published : December 31, 2025 at 4:10 PM IST
By Dr. Kancharla Valentina
India is witnessing a rise in incidents related to stampedes, causing devastating human loss, and needs urgent policy interventions. The latest such unfortunate incident happened on November 1, 2025, at the Venkateswara Swamy temple in Kasibugga, Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh, which led to the loss of lives of at least nine devotees and injuring several others. Eight women and one child died in this stampede, raising concerns about public safety and crowd management in festive and religious congregations.
Overcrowding, a single entry and exit route, and a shabby construction site that obstructed the smooth passage of devotees are all said to be the reasons for this stampede. Some estimates say that there was chaos among the devotees due to the rush of over 25,000 people, and this chaos resulted when a railing collapsed due to the crowd pressure when they were trying to enter the elevated first-floor temple premises.
According to several media reports, this Venkateshwara temple was privately owned and did not seek permission from public authorities about the expected huge gathering on the auspicious occasion of Ekadashi, but a pertinent question to be asked here is how public authorities can be unaware of such massive gatherings? Another tragic stampede occurred on 27th September, with the death of over 40 people during the Tamilaga Vettri Kashagan (TVK) founder and actor Vijay TVK's party meeting in Karur in Tamil Nadu, which shook the nation.
Many stampedes occurred in the recent past during religious, political rallies, sports events, and other public programmes. It was not long before Bengaluru witnessed a stampede in which 11 people were killed, and 56 were injured during the celebrations of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru's maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) win on 4th June, 2025. In Hathras, on July 2nd, 2024, 121 devotees of Bhole Baba died in a stampede that happened while he was leaving the venue. This stampede occurred after some people rushed to see him from close, which resulted in a rush, chaos, and a stampede.
During Kumbh Mela on 29th January 2025, on Mouni Amavasya, as per official records, 30 people died, while independent media reports said that close to 82 people died. On 15th February, 2025, a stampede also occurred in Delhi railway station, wherein 18 people died, and many were injured in the Kumbh mela rush to catch trains to Prayagraj. Similarly, during a stampede incident in annual gathering of the Sabarimala pilgrimage in 2011, 109 people were killed.
Usually, stampedes occur in mass gatherings of an uncontrolled crowd. Stampedes cannot be considered just mere accidents and have socio-economic and structural dimensions to them. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines mass gatherings as assemblies of more than a specific number of people at a designated location for a particular purpose over a set period. Mass gatherings could be of two types - spontaneous and planned.
Spontaneous Mass Gatherings, by their nature, are more difficult to manage when compared to the other. As reported by the online website, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)'s report titled 'Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India', the number of deaths caused by stampedes spanning from 2001 to 2022 reveals that a total of 3,074 lives have been lost due to stampedes in India. Of these, 2,169 (70%) were men and 900 (30%) were women.
Major international incidents of Stampedes
On April 15, 1989, the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, En Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, witnessed one of the deadliest tragedies in the history of British sports, in which 90 people died, and over 200 people were injured. This incident led to many changes in the United Kingdom’s mass gathering safety protocols in sports events thereafter. The deadliest three human stampedes in the world over the past century include the stampede in Baghdad during a religious procession in 2005 (965 fatalities), the Mina Valley stampede during the annual Hajj in 2006 (380 fatalities), and the Phnom Penh black Friday shopping stampede in 2010 in Cambodia with 347 fatalities.
Socio-Psychological theories explaining religious and crowd behaviour
Research on stampedes indicates that they occur mostly in religious festivals, victory processions, and political rallies, wherein there is a surge in people attending these events. According to French sociologist Emile Durkheim, religious gatherings create a phenomenon called collective effervescence (sacred time and space) during which people share solidarity and high emotional intensity. According to him, a religion comes into being and is legitimised through moments of what he calls "collective effervescence."
Collective effervescence refers to moments in societal life when the group of individuals that makes up a society comes together in order to perform a religious ritual. During these moments, the group comes together and communicates the same thought and participates in the same action, which serves to unify a group of individuals, leading participants to a high degree of collective emotional excitement or delirium.
This impersonal, extra-individual force, which is a core element of religion, transports the individuals into a new, ideal realm, lifts them up outside of themselves, and makes them feel as if they are in contact with an extraordinary energy.
According to a social psychologist, Erving Goffman, social life is like a play, and often any individual's actions, behaviour, and presentation in a given social situation depend on the setting and audience. In events like religious or rallies, people express devotion or loyalty, which often leads to disorder and chaos. It is here that individual rationality is being overtaken by collective excitement, fear, and panic.
There is a psychology of crowds that, when individuals gather in large numbers, there's a natural tendency for behaviours to become more synchronised and, at times, unpredictable. The anonymity provided by the crowd can lead to a diffusion of responsibility, where individuals may assume that someone else will take charge in emergencies.
Policy Intervention
An IIT civil engineering faculty study, published in 2020 lists a total of 137 stampedes that have occurred all over the world between the years 1883 and 2017. Stampedes in this study were classified based on the type of events as religious, sports, entertainment, festival, political, and others. Among all types of events, religious gatherings cause 64% of total fatalities and 51% injuries. The triggering factors are identified as rumours, fire, structural failure, narrow passage, overcrowding, and others.
There is no specific law on Stampedes, but section 106 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) addresses death by negligence, and section 125 of BNS penalises acts done rashly or negligently that harm human life or personal safety. Mostly, government authorities rely on a combination of broader criminal laws, disaster management protocols, and specific sections addressing negligence and public endangerment.
The Police Act of 1861, which had been modified by state-specific needs, is considered to be the major law that looks at crowd safety. Under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, Stampedes fall under the category of "man-made disasters" and are addressed by this act. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was established under this act and has issued guidelines specifically for managing crowds at mass gatherings to prevent such incidents.
The police and administration have to ensure public safety in mass gatherings. Planning is also very important before any such gathering. The police have to use intelligence reports and scrutinise rally organisers' publicity materials. Advertising mechanisms of organisers through print and social media should also be used by police authorities to understand the magnitude of the mass gatherings and plan accordingly before giving permission to hold rallies or meetings.
Role of the Government
Despite a series of stampedes in the recent past, the ruling governments don't seem to have learnt any policy lessons. During mass gatherings, there are high chances of stampedes. Still, the government doesn't equip itself with preventive safety mechanisms. Crowd-management mechanisms by police and other government agencies often don't consider the high emotional stakes of people who gather in such events.
The government should also use modern technologies, like Artificial Intelligence (AI), and drones installed in such venues. Ambulance services in emergencies, fire engines, proper sanitation, and ventilation facilities should be taken care of by any government while giving permission to any large gatherings.
Usually, people who form a major part of this crowd come from a poor socio-economic status and are not aware of proper safety protocols, and have information asymmetry. So, mass media should be used to educate about crowd behaviour and safety mechanisms in mass gatherings. The government should take cognisance of crowd management, weak infrastructure, and involve community elders in devising any strategies for preventing stampedes.
Before giving permission for any mass gathering, the police and revenue officials should do a proper venue analysis with proper entry and exit points, including emergency exits. Most often in such situations, police are more concerned with maintaining law and order than with public safety, so they should be trained to understand the behaviour patterns of crowds in mass gatherings.
Analysing weather conditions, ensuring enough water supply and refreshments, and providing shade facilities to people who come to these gatherings should be done by the organisers. In the Karur stampede, both the Government and TVK are blaming each other for this tragedy. According to government sources, permission was sought for around 10,000 people, and over 25,000 gathered. Further, permission to hold a rally was taken from 12 PM to 3 PM, in the afternoon, but Vijay finally reached Karur at around 7 PM, resulting in a surge in crowd, confusion, and chaos.
To catch his glimpse, some climbed a nearby tree, and some climbed onto a tea stall roof. One of the tree branches collapsed along with the roof of the tea shop, which triggered the stampede, according to some sources. It is also reported by some media that nearly 50,000 people gathered in a space of around one lakh twenty thousand square feet area which itself indicated that a tragedy was waiting to happen. However, according to TVK sources, the government deliberately cut the power supply, mismanaged the situation with its police force, and this led to a stampede-like situation.
Similarly, in the Venkateshwara Swamy temple stampede in Kasibugga, no precautions were taken by the temple and public authorities to properly manage such a huge gathering of devotees. Common people should be made aware of checking their safety mechanisms in large gatherings and religious festivities. It is mostly the poor, children, and women who die in stampedes, which is a socio-structural issue, and any intervening strategy to prevent stampedes in the future should take this matter into consideration for any policy mechanism. Media and Civil society organisations should also help the government in preventing such tragedies of stampedes in the future, as the government alone cannot solve many socio-structural issues.
(The writer is an Assistant Professor at the Ambedkar University, Delhi)
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writers. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of ETV Bharat)
