Calamity in the making

Sabarimala is considered one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations, so much so that it finds its place in the global list of top pilgrimage sites, sharing space with the Vatican and the Kumbh

Calamity in the making

Sabarimala is considered one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations, so much so that it finds its place in the global list of top pilgrimage sites, sharing space with the Vatican and the Kumbh. Even Forbes Traveler features this destination among its list of the "World's 10 most popular religious pilgrim centres". Paradoxically, this pilgrim destination that attracts around 60 million tourists annually, has failed to make the site safer for its pilgrims. The recent stampede incident that occurred on January 14 taking the lives of more than 100 people and injuring several more is not a first. A similar incident occurred back in 1999, killing more than 50 people.

What is shocking is that in spite of similar incidents taking the lives of many a decade ago, no proper mechanism for safety protocols was established.

Stampedes, for that matter, are neither a recent phenomenon nor only confined to this one site, but are frequent in almost all major pilgrimage destinations ufffd ranging from Vaishno Devi to Maha Kumbh ufffd both being the biggest and largest religious tourist hubs of the nation. Back in 2003, hundreds were killed and injured at the Kumbh Mela in Maharashtra. Similarly, in 2005, the death toll crossed a few hundreds in Mandhra Devi temple in Maharashtra. Contrast this with the world's biggest religious tourist hubs ufffd the Mecca or the Vatican ufffd such incidents of stampede are very rare because of proper and scientific implementation of security measures and traffic management protocols.

A major pie of deaths in these stampedes is of common men only. Simply because when it comes to VIPs and celebs, the whole procedure of security and safety is 're-customised' for their convenience.

The mainstream media has been unusually silent over this particular incident because of the fact that the people who met their untimely death are from the bottom strata of society! To be true, I did come across a few editorials post the recent incident where the writers' stances were more towards pointing out the irresponsible behaviour of people.

As I mentioned earlier, there are other global religious destinations which attract a similar number of pilgrims, and there is only one reason as to why such tragedies do not happen there. And that is that their religious committees and governments do not suffer from social prejudices and have been successful in universalising basic facilities for one and all! The day we achieve the same even our tragedies would stop!

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