Religious function;
GLARING LAPSES EXPOSED
Dr Santosh Kumar Mohapatra
The recent tragic stampede at the Venkateswara Temple in Kasibugga, Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, where eight women and a 13-year-old boy lost their lives along with several injured, exemplifies how death during religious congregations can happen due to glaring lapses in safety and management.
The deaths could have been avoided.If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, or if service to humanity is service to the Almighty, then what need is there for haste? When there is no rush, one can visit the temple in peace and offer true obeisance to God or Goddess.
This incident occurred during a major religious event (Ekadashi), attracting around 25,000 devotees, far exceeding the temple’s capacity. Critical safety protocols were violated: the temple was under construction, lacked proper regulatory oversight, had no formal permissions for crowd management, and the same entry and exit points created a bottleneck resulting in a deadly crush when devotees pushed forward in chaos. Such negligence led to an avoidable tragedy where lives were lost because basic crowd control and safety measures were not implement.
.This underscores a painful reality: while faith and spirituality often promise peace and salvation, the lack of proper organization and safety provisions during massive religious gatherings can turn them into sites of suffering and death. History shows similar cases where stampedes or accidents during religious festivals and pilgrimages have led to multiple casualties, highlighting the necessity for strict safety standards, government oversight, and preparedness to prevent such loss of life due to human error or oversight.
Thus, death occurring in places of worship is not a reflection of divine will but often a consequence of human negligence in managing large crowds and ensuring safety for all devotees. In brief, the recent Venkateswara Temple stampede tragically exemplifies how lapses in crowd control and safety measures during religious gatherings lead to avoidable deaths, emphasizing the urgent need for better planning, oversight, and care in such events.
The author is an Odisha based columnist,economist and social thinker.
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