Stampede

Stampede

Not a strange term for many of those who have gone into some gathering or the other.
Mobs are calm, quietly work their way back to their homes. Stampedes by definition means a crowd running madly without any intention in mind. It starts off with few men running to do something, this ignites the dynamite crowd to run widly into one another. This effect is so spontaneous that with in seconds one can see the whole crowd frenziedly walking over their own dead bodies.

This is not just a theoretical term, we can find plently cases when thousands lost their lives. Few days back we heard the tragic incident of Haj. The incident happens every year with nearly hundreds of people murdering themselves in such a holy place like Haj. In 2000 it was recorded that a peak of 1800 odd men and women were killed while offering their worships. And this year the trend continues with 360 odd men dieing and more than 1000 injuring themselves for no reason. In Chennai no one expected to have a stampede at a place where food was being distributed for the flood affected victims.

I dont think such stampedes are 100% out of our control if the administration can do some thinking on avoiding such holocausts. Take the case of Tirupathi where lakhs of devotees visit the temple on the hills of Tirumala. Not even a single time we find such stampedes. The adminstration there has taken lot of care and has devoted its resources in making the pilgrimage safe and stampede free.

With over 25 lakhs of people visiting Haj at this time of the year the administration should make proper arrangements for accomodating atleast double the actual size of the pilgrims. If arrangements are not made to check out such simple problems then time will come when people will not fear to drive their bike at 80 but will definelty abhor to attend mass gatherings!!