What Caused the Jagannath Rath Yatra Stampede? Crowd Surge, Unexpected Traffic to Blame

What Caused the Jagannath Rath Yatra Stampede? Three devotees, including two women, died and six others were injured in a stampede that broke out in front of Gundicha Temple in Puri on Sunday morning.

The incident occurred between 3:30 am to 4:30 am after the chariot-pulling of Rath Yatra was over and all three chariots were parked in front of Gundicha Temple.

The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital and are undergoing treatment. The deceased have been identified as Pravati Das (52) of Balipatna, Basanti Sahu (42) of Godabhanga and Premakanta Mohanty (78) of Bhubaneswar.

Odisha law minister Prithviraj Harichandan said the state government will probe into the incident, and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has been informed of the same. He added that action will be taken once the probe is over.

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On Sunday morning, around 1,500 devotees had gathered in front of Gundicha temple – around 3 km from the main Jagannath Temple – to see the three deities in the chariots.

At around 4 am, two trucks loaded with Charamala wood, which is considered sacred, entered the Saradhabali area, as per eyewitnesses.

The sudden arrival of the two trucks created chaos among the devotees, and several were injured, and three died of suffocation.

Meanwhile, the husband of one of the victims who lost her life alleged that no officials responded when the incident occurred. “When this happened, no one responded, neither the fire officials, nor the rescue team, nor the hospital team,” he said.

Also Read: Puri Rath Yatra Stampede Kills 3, Injures Dozens Near Gundicha Temple

An eyewitness said “people fell over each other”, and many were unconscious within minutes, and they rushed to the information centre seeking help. But the eyewitness said the centre could do nothing, and the ambulance was stationed a kilometre away from the spot.

Another Puri resident who was present at the temple till 3 am in the morning said the management was “not good”. Swadhin Kumar Panda told ANI that a new way had been made for the VIPs to enter the temple, and common people were being asked to exit from a distance. "People started exiting from the entrance itself, which increased the crowd," Panda said. He said the traffic management was also bad, and many vehicles with fake passes had come near the temple.

Rath Yatra in Puri started on Friday. During the annual Yatra, three grand chariots with idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Shubhadra are pulled by devotees from Jagannath Temple to Gundicha Temple.

The deities will stay at Gundicha Temple for a week and will return to Jagannath Temple on July 1, when the Yatra will end.

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