Crowd Management To Avoid Stampedes

Crowd Management To Avoid Stampedes
By Anuradha Goyal
The last thing I wanted to experience in the beautiful valley of Kashmir was getting struck in a traffic jam. Yet, that is exactly what I had to brave every time I stepped out to be at the venue for a Jammu and Kashmir tourism conclave I was speaking at, or to visit the temples in and around Srinagar.

At the tourism conclave, the topics of concern included meeting the heightened needs of tourists—from accommodation and transportation to development of new destinations and dealing with the waste they leave behind. Problem of plenty – when the demand is way higher than the supply. It is the same situation in every popular destination.

Then came the news of stampedes at Hathras and the Puri rath yatra. My mind immediately went back to so many of my temple visits, where such stampedes were quite possible. You could say that they do not happen on a daily basis is indeed some divine grace. Try attending the mangala arti at Jagannath Puri, or be at Arunachaleshwara on a weekend, or visit Alandi temple any day. You get into a queue—once you are in, you simply cannot come out of it even if you are suffocating. You are surrounded by strong steel rods and a crowd that can only move in one direction. Sometimes, the width of the lane is just enough for once person to move in one direction.

Firstly, most of this crowd and chaos is created, not natural. For example, at the Arunachaleshwara Shiva temple you must spend hours in the queue. You come out and visit the Devi temple right next to it, and through everyone visits it, there is no rush. You simply walk in, pray and come out. The crowd naturally keeps moving using the open space, making way for the elderly, children or disabled. The same crowd leads to total chaos at the first temple, even with high-value ‘special’ tickets. There is something amiss.

Crowd management needs to be urgently and mandatorily in place for all the places that attract big crowds. India is full of them. There must be a way out for those who may feel unwell or suffocated or may have a train or a flight to catch. CCTV cameras or similar technologies can be used to ensure that people visiting from far can peacefully enjoy the few moments they spend there. At the same time, they should not create chaos for others.

The National Disaster Management Authority’s 95-page guidelines are available online, but it is hard to see them in practice. One of the modules says a person needs one square yard of space to move around freely—we do not even leave that kind of space at airports queues, leave apart the overly-crowded places.

We might soon need ‘stay at home’ campaigns. Sometimes I wonder if phrases like ‘East or West, home is the best’ were indeed invented for similar times in the past. Maybe it is time to follow Chaturmasa tradition of not travelling during the four monsoon months and allowing nature to rejuvenate. Let the destinations be with the locals and reduce the burden on the broader system.

The authorities, both government and private, will act when they have a solid reason to. But we, as tourist and pilgrims, need to be careful in planning our travels. School vacations are understandably a peak travel time, but try to travel in non-peak times. At least choose less-crowded destinations. I remember visiting Ladakh in January meant having the whole landscape to myself, while the same place in summers looks like Kashmiri Gate in Delhi.

We need to question if traveling every weekend or every month is a must just because we can afford it with time and money. What are you enjoying if you are creating and suffering the same traffic jam in another location? Believe me, a traffic jam in scenic Srinagar feels the same as one in Bengaluru’s IT corridor.

Devotees needs to choose pilgrimage places that are important to their lineage and faith. You do not need to visit every temple, every religious place you see pictures of, or every temple that a professional travel influencer is visiting. Social media content tempts, but honestly, being part of a chaotic crowd does not really help you grow spiritually.

It is fun to be adventurous. But why ignore warnings? I have seen beach guards in Goa pleading people to not go beyond red flags, but not many listen. When you go to see that obscure waterfall with no one around to rescue, you need to be extra careful. Though we expect our security forces to come to our rescue, we must understand it is not their job to secure us from our stupidities like going to the edge of a steep rock for that selfie. If we want them to come to our rescue, we must also listen to the warnings and limits put in place to keep us safe. On that note, Indian authorities need to have strict guidelines for adventure sports operators. I have participated in these sports outside India and our operators have a lot to learn. Something as simple as wearing life jackets while going into waters is rarely practiced.

If there was something called crowd pollution, let us pro-actively plan to stay safe from it. This would automatically minimise our contribution to it. It’s time to sit back and enjoy our homes a bit, too.

First Published in The New Indian Express on 28 Jul 2024.