‘Was unconscious for half an hour, then a Naga Sadhu helped me’: Survivors from West Bengal recall Kumbh Mela stampede

Debnath reached the Sangam connected January 28, lone to face a oversea of an estimated 5 crore people, each yearning for a beatified dip. But arsenic Mauni Amavasya dawned, devotion turned to chaos. “There was nary abstraction to stand,” she told The Indian Express implicit phone. “And owed to suffocation, radical wanted to leave. Those who were sleeping oregon seated adjacent to the stream for a beatified dip — each became victims.”

The propulsion and shove turned into a stampede, she said. “People stepped connected bodies to scope the Sangam,” Debnath continued, her dependable hardly a whisper. “So galore died successful beforehand of me.”

In the pandemonium, she says, she saw a kid being crushed. Driven by instinct, she tried to help, lone to beryllium swept distant herself. “At slightest 20 radical stepped connected maine crook by turn,” she said, her dependable flat. “I didn’t get a accidental to adjacent get up.”

When Debnath awoke from unconsciousness, it was adjacent a Naga Sadhus’ camp. They told her she was fortunate to beryllium alive.

Rakesh Kumar Roy, from Kolkata, shared a akin communicative of survival. “We reached Prayagraj connected the evening of the 28th. At 7 pm, we started our locomotion toward Sangam and reached determination astatine 1.30 americium successful the night. For astir 5 kilometres, it was taking 6-10 hours.”

He described the “flawed planning”, the diversions, and the sheer measurement of people. “Like us, 80 percent of the radical had planned to instrumentality a bath connected Mauni Amavasya… The concern got worse, and it was suffocating.”

“People kept breaking barricades to scope the spot to instrumentality beatified dip… and crores of radical started pushing from behind. Many wanted to leave, then, to prevention lives, and a stampede took place.” Rakesh’s dependable choked with emotion. “More than 50 indispensable person died, we saw truthful galore of them lying dead.”

He recounted the near-death of a antheral his radical pulled from the crush. “My person kept pumping connected his thorax and successful a fewer minutes we saw an ambulance coming in… helium survived.” Roy acknowledged the punctual enactment of the constabulary and medication but emphasised the sheer impossibility of managing specified a crowd. “Any decease is unfortunate but it could person been the biggest massacre… if determination was a hold successful action.”

Rakesh, inactive successful Allahabad, waiting for the crowds to thin, offered a stark warning: “I volition suggest — if anyone wants to instrumentality a beatified dip, debar the Shahi Snan days (key dates).”

“I americium carrying the invisible scars of the Kumbh Mela: a pilgrimage that turned into a brushwood with decease for me,” Debnath said.

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