Faith became deadly in Nalanda

heyn Results will come on March 23 Bihar School Examination Board for Class 12th When the announcement was made, Kundan Kumar, a 20-year-old resident of Mathurapur village in Bihar’s Noorsarai town, was thrilled. He had scored 65% marks, which meant he secured first division. His mother Rekha Devi, 45, was also very happy and gave him ₹1,000 to buy new books. A few days later, the family visited Shitala Mata temple in Maghara village of Nalanda districtAbout 10 kilometers away, to offer their prayers and celebrate Kundan’s success.

According to temple priest Shubham Kumar, 30, Sheetala Mata is considered an incarnation. Goddess Durga in HinduismAs stated in religious scriptures,Skanda Purana. Spread over 1.5 acres, the temple attracts devotees who believe that skin diseases can be cured by bathing in the cool waters of its pond.

On March 31, the day Kundan’s family went to the temple, the crowd increased rapidly. It was the last Tuesday of Chaitra month in the Hindu calendar, which is considered an important day for spiritual practices, especially the worship of Goddess Durga. Locals say that on any normal day, 500-1,000 devotees visit the temple. However, according to the police, more than 10,000 people had gathered for special prayers that day.

it The sudden surge between 9:30 and 10:00 am caused a stampede. Nine people including Rekha Devi lost their lives. Eight were female, and one was an unidentified male. Most of the victims were from Nalanda.

Rekha Devi’s daughter Sharmila Kumari, 24, who got married last month, also went to the temple with her mother.

“My mother used to take care of us because our father is mentally ill,” says Sharmila. “He has been undergoing treatment at the Central Psychiatric Institute (in Kanke, Ranchi) for the last decade.” After the incident, he is worried not only about his father, but also his two younger brothers.

Kundan started crying clutching the new books to his chest. “My mother always encouraged me to study and become a big government official so that our financial burden would be reduced,” he says. “She just went to pray. She never returned.”

Kundan’s biggest regret is that he was not inside the temple; He was standing outside at the time of the incident.

anatomy of stampede

Sharmila, her husband Vijendra Kumar, Rekha Devi and Kundan reached the temple around 8:30 in the morning, recalls Sharmila. He bought flowers for the puja and joined the crowd.

Sharmila says that there was no proper queue there. Only she and her mother went inside the temple, while her brother and husband remained outside. Although men are allowed to enter the temple, it is usually women who come to worship.

At 9:30 in the morning they finally entered. Within minutes there was chaos. He saw that people were pushing each other. Then someone shouted, “died, died (She is dead, she is dead).”

“People started falling on each other,” says Sharmila. “My mother also fell. I couldn’t understand what was happening. There were hundreds of people around me and they were all shouting the names of the people they were with.”

In the scuffle she lost sight of her mother. “People pushed me to a corner, but my mother remained in the middle of the crowd,” she says.

After some time she started searching for her mother near the exit gate. By then Kundan had found his sister.

About half an hour later, locals and devotees started taking out the bodies lying a few meters away from the inner sanctum of the temple complex. Rekha Devi was also included among them. They took him on a scooter to Bihar Sharif Sadar Hospital, about 6 km away, as no ambulance had come. “The doctors declared him dead,” says Sharmila.

Sharmila is as angry as she is sad. She says that not a single policeman was seen inside or outside the temple to control the crowd.

He also alleged that a priest of the temple was taking money from devotees and allowing them to enter through the exit gate. “Because of this, the exit door also got closed,” she says.

trapped inside

Poonam, who had gone to the temple with her mother, alleged that when chaos broke out, the authorities closed the gates and put up bamboo barricades, which worsened the situation. They claim that both entry and exit were blocked.

She had gone to celebrate scoring 63% marks in Bihar School Examination Board. “My mother had promised that we would go to the temple if I passed the first division. I lost her within minutes of arriving,” she says.

Dinesh Rajak lost his wife Rita Devi, 50, in the stampede. The father of six children and a resident of Sakunat area of ​​Bihar Sharif came to know about the incident after about two hours.

Dinesh, who earns his living by selling spices from one village to another, says that his wife and daughter had gone to the temple that day without a mobile phone. “Around 12:30 (noon) I got a call from an unknown number,” he says. “I heard my daughter crying. She told me that her mother had fainted in the temple and was taken to Sadar Hospital.”

He ran there. “I found my daughter standing outside the postmortem centre. My wife’s body was lying inside.”

For Arjun Singh, 55, a vegetable seller, tragedy has struck twice in the last few years. In 2024, Arjun loses his second son in a train accident. And on March 31, he lost his wife in the stampede.

He says that nine members of the family had gone to the temple at around 7.30 in the morning. Arjun recalls that there was a pit at the entrance of the sanctum sanctorum. “We didn’t see it because we were looking ahead. As soon as we stepped inside, more than a hundred people fell on us.”

He adds, “We remained in pain for about an hour. No one came to help. My wife died in my lap.” Arjun has filed a First Information Report against the temple priest for allowing entry in exchange for money.

“If the police or the temple management had made proper arrangements, many lives could have been saved and the incident could have been avoided,” says Arjun, father of five.

after

While nine people died in this incident, 12 others were injured and have been admitted to Sadar Hospital.

Preeti Devi, 30, who is recovering from injuries, says the temple is located in a narrow lane where there are flower shops and flower shops. OfferingDue to which the ambulance was delayed in reaching the spot.

Mukesh Kumar, a resident of the area, says that those who became unconscious were first taken to the nearby Urban Health and Welfare Centre.

Sumitra Sinha, a 45-year-old auxiliary nurse midwife on duty at the centre, says at least 12 people were brought. “A woman was brought dead,” she says. “For others, we checked blood pressure, provided ORS (oral rehydration solution), water, and gave CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) where necessary.”

Pankaj Kumar, whose sister Anushka Sinha is also hospitalized, says he was able to withstand the pressure of the crowd, but his sister could not. He says that before the stampede there was not a single policeman around. “Hundreds of policemen arrived at the scene an hour after the stampede occurred.”

Alok Ranjan (46), another resident of the area, alleges that most of the police were deployed in Rajgir. He was sent there to meet President Draupadi Murmu, who had come to attend the convocation of Nalanda University. Later, Murmu expressed his condolences and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Soon after the stampede, several senior government officials visited the scene, including Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Vinay Kumar; Nalanda Superintendent of Police (SP) Bharat Soni; District Magistrate Kundan Kumar; Inspector General (Central Range), Patna, Jitendra Rana; and Director General (Operations) Kundan Krishnan.

Following reports of security lapses in his area, Soni suspended Deep Nagar SHO Rajamani and four other police officers. The government also formed a Special Investigation Team to investigate the incident.

On the night of March 31, the police conducted a raid and arrested four priests of the temple – Anuj Kumar, Awadhesh Kumar Mishra, Vivekananda Pandey and Niranjan Kumar Pandey. He has been charged under Section 105 of the Indian Code of Justice, 2023, which deals with culpable homicide, and has been sent to judicial custody.

So far, 40 people have been booked for violating safety norms and alleged mismanagement during the religious gathering. However, locals claim that many of the people who were booked were not present at the spot during the stampede.

crowd management concerns

Local people and officials say that poor crowd control was a major reason for the incident.

“The temple management should have anticipated the overcrowding and taken special care,” says a resident. “The structure should have been built to handle the crowd safely.”

Bihar DGP Vinay Kumar says, “As soon as I got information about the stampede, I reached the spot and inspected the premises. We found many lapses. It would have been difficult to handle even a crowd of 1,000 people. There were around 10,000 people that day.” He further said that the temple structure was not adequate for large gatherings and recommended security audit for temples where large crowds gather.

Preliminary investigation has also found inadequate crowd management and poor system to be the reason for this tragic incident. Bihar State Religious Trust Board Chairman Ranveer Nandan visited the temple the day after the incident and admitted that there were lapses on the part of the temple management.

“It is the duty of the temple management to discuss before any big religious event and plan to manage the crowd. I will ensure that it is registered under the temple board, which will look after the temple management,” says Nandan. As of 2025 data, the board oversees around 2,500 registered temples and trusts. The board has also identified 2,512 unregistered temples and monasteries in Bihar.

After the incident, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced ₹6 lakh for the affected families – ₹4 lakh from the disaster management department and ₹2 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his condolences and announced financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the families from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

After the postmortem report confirmed that the deaths were due to compressive asphyxia, all the affected families have received ₹6 lakh each from the District Magistrate’s office.

Dinesh Rajak, who lost his wife, says that he will save the compensation he has received for the marriage of his youngest daughter.

Such incidents have happened before in Bihar also. On 19 November 2012, 22 people were killed at Adalatganj Ghat in Patna during the Chhath festival. On October 3, 2014, 33 people died in a stampede at Gandhi Maidan in Patna during a program after the killing of Ravana, and on November 4, 2017, three people died in a stampede at Simaria Ghat in Begusarai.

The day after the 2026 incident, devotees remained calm at Shitala Mata temple even though the crowd was less than usual.

Sushma Kumari, 45, who came to worship on April 1, says, “I heard about the tragic incident in which several women died in the temple, but I could not stop myself from going there. They all died in the lap of Sheetala Mata. I will pray for their souls.”