Stampedes are frequent in India due to poor crowd managment and the way our public spaces suchas temples,railway stations,bridges etc are constructed.Every year ,hundreds of people lose their lioves due to stampedes,which generally occur at temples,railway stations and political rallies.

Data

1) According to NCRB ,from 2000-2013,almost 2000 people died in stampedes.

2)According to the study conducted by International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction religious gatherings and pilgrimages have been the venues of 79% stampedes in India

What are the causes?

Collapse of structures suchas barricades,bridges,temporary structrures etc.

Narrow entry/exits

Poor crowd behaviour ,especially the role of rumour mongers.

Poor crowd mangement due to undertstaffed security personnel,lack of coordination among various agencies etc.

Incidents of fire and improper electricity wiring.

What should be the way forward?

Improvce the public communication system

Improve the synergy among police,civil society and crowd managers

Capacity building of security personnel.

Proper focus on medical and emergency care is required.

Best practice?

ASHIOTO-It is a real time crowd flow analysis platform.This analysis would be available to the citizens.It has been a successful experiment in Nasik Kumbh Mela.