Why do stampedes occur so often in India?

Stampedes, in which scores of men, women and children are killed and many more grievously injured, are all too frequent in India.

- By P.K. Balachandran

There were eight major stampedes so far this year. The massive stampede in Tamil actor and fledgling politico Vijay's rally at Karur on September 27, in which 41 were killed, was the latest.

These tragic events are generally attributed to India's massive population and the tendency among its people to extravagantly demonstrate their religious devotion or admiration for film stars and political icons. Politicians also believe in showing off their support base by holding massive rallies often in ways not approved by the police. There is little or no awareness of crowd behaviour both among people and political leaders, especially the various stimuli that they could respond to in irrational ways.

Governments are aware of crowd management techniques but have failed to implement them. Recommendations of Inquiry Commissions have been filed and forgotten.

There have been eight major stampedes in India in 2025 -

On January 8, at Tirupati, a temple town in Andhra Pradesh, six people were killed and 40 injured in a stampede at the ticket counter.

82 were killed in four separate stampedes during the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) in Uttar Pradesh on January 29.

18 people were killed and 15 injured when passengers slipped from an overcrowded footbridge connecting two platforms at the New Delhi railway station on February 15.

Six people were killed and more than 50 injured in Goa at the Shirgao Lairai Devi temple on May 3. Panic had gripped the crowd near the area where a fire-walking ritual was taking place.

On June 5, 11 people were crushed to death and 50 injured in Bengaluru at a celebration of the victory of the local Royal Challengers team in the Indian Premier League cricket tournament. The organisers were unprepared to handle 250,000 people who had converged outside the Chinnaswamy stadium.