It was nearly 15 hours after the Kumbh Mela stampede took place on January 29 that the Uttar Pradesh administration officially acknowledged the death toll. 

Mahakumbh DIG Vaibhav Krishna told reporters at about 6.45 pm that 30 people had died in the incident that took place at Sangam Ghat between 1 and 2 am when a crowd “broke the barricades”. The crowds had surged that day on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya. 

However, media reports place the death toll higher. Reuters counted 39 bodies at a local hospital morgue and said three police sources had confirmed a death toll of nearly 40. Dainik Bhaskar’s reporter counted 20 bodies at a local hospital, where the last body was numbered 40, and said at least 20 bodies had been handed over to their families. 

And hours later, devotees at the Kumbh are still searching for family members who went missing at Sangam Ghat. Newslaundry met dozens of them at Bhoola Bhatke Shivirs, or Lost & Found Centres, at Sector 3 of the Mahakumbh. Many said they were separated from their loved ones a few hours after the stampede, but are receiving no support from the administration. 

The centre at Sector 3 is the helpline kiosk that is nearest to the site of the stampede. About 10 hours after the stampede, an official behind a counter told Newslaundry, on condition of anonymity, that “around 200” missing person applications had been submitted since 2 am.

“Can you please help me and just ensure that my wife sits on a train?” said Om Prakash from Kachaneo village in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district. Prakash seemed dazed as he showed this reporter his wife’s Aadhaar card. “I have been roaming from one centre to the other but they haven’t even made an announcement regarding my wife.”

His wife, 62-year-old Rama Kanti, had gone to the toilet at about 4.30 am near Sangam Ghat. Prakash said she never returned. Compounding his anxiety is that his wife will be unable to recall a contact number or address of any family member.

Krishan Gopal was equally worried about his wife, 60-year-old Mamta Devi from UP’s Kasganj district. He showed Newslaundry her Aadhaar card and said she’d been missing since 7 am.

“She might be able to recall our village name but not the contact number or anything else,” he said. 

Hira Lal Singh from Bihar’s Chhapra district was desperately waiting for news of five family members – his wife, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. Speaking to Newslaundry on the afternoon of January 29, Hira Lal said he was separated from them at 5 am at Sangam Ghat when the police “tried to block the way” with barricades.

“Along with three of my family members, I was able to get to the other side of the barricade from pontoon bridge number 13. But these five got lost in the mayhem,” he said. 

Hira Lal repeatedly pleaded with officials in charge of the centre to make an announcement on the mic or loudspeaker with his missing family’s names, but he said they refused. 

“I had an ugly verbal exchange with the officials and then myself made an announcement,” he said. “...I didn’t get any support from the police. It was a failure of the administration.”

Police ‘not present’ or ‘unable to control crowd’

Multiple eyewitnesses to the stampede told Newslaundry the space near Sangam Ghat had been occupied by a large number of devotees, some of whom had chosen to sleep or rest near the ghat as they waited for the Shahi Snan, or holy dip, to begin. The crowds began building up from 10 pm the previous night. The police attempted to disperse those resting on the ground but the crowd stayed put.

Meanwhile, another batch of devotees began approaching the Sangam river, some of them reportedly moving past the barricade that demarcated the ghat. They pushed through and it led to a stampede.

“The police tried to intervene but were still not able to control the crowd,” said Karan, a sanitation worker who was on duty at the ghat until 2 am. 

Twelve hours later, the ground is strewn with sweaters, saris, jackets and blankets, presumably belonging to those who died or were injured in the stampede. Shoes and sandals were abandoned as far as one kilometre away. It’s left to workers like Karan to clean, even as the Adityanath-led administration continued showering flowers on devotees from a helicopter.

“I am a big bhakt of Yogi but this has been an absolute failure,” said Mahadev Singh from Mumbai, whose relative Saroj, a 55-year-old woman, has been missing since the stampede took place. Mahadev said he and eight family members had set out from Sector 21 of the Mela at 2 am. They were about 100 metres from Sangam Ghat when the stampede took place. 

“The police were not present anywhere,” he said. “They were stationed on the roads or near the spot where the sadhus were supposed to take a dip.” 

As per Mahadev, it was after he saw women and children fainting that he tried telephoning the Kumbh police and the Mela administration’s emergency helpline. Two of his calls – at 3.39 am and 3.50 am on January 29 – went unanswered. He also showed this reporter multiple videos recording on his mobile phone of people jostling and pushing for space at Sangam Ghat before the stampede. 

Munni Devi from Prayagraj told Newslaundry her daughter Ritu had fainted due to suffocation at Sangam Ghat that night.

“We didn’t even realise that she had fallen behind owing to unconsciousness,” she said. “It was only when a man pulled her up that we rushed Ritu to the hospital.”

‘We were holding each other’s hands’

At the Ayushman First Aid Centre in Sector 3, which is also located close to the stampede site, Dr Amit Singh said he’s been on duty for the last 24 hours. The centre had referred about 15 to 20 patients to government hospital units set up in Sectors 2 and 4. 

“In terms of the nature of health issues, people brought here were those whose bodies were shaking due to fluctuations in blood pressure,” Dr Singh said. “Some persons had sustained fractures so they had to be referred for x-rays.” He said the fractures were after people fell on each other during the stampede.

Meanwhile, the search for the missing continues.

At the Lost & Found Centre in Sector 3, Satram from Bihar’s Bhabua city sobbed inconsolably as he sat on the floor. His son Jung Bahadur has been missing since 3-4 am. “They [the officials] are not listening to me,” he said and broke down into tears again. 

Speaking to Newslaundry, Jagdish Chandra Malik, a former Air Force officer from Haryana, said, “I accompanied Satram to the help desk but they refused to entertain his request simply because he could not produce his son’s photograph.” 

Janki Mishra’s mother, Urmila Devi, had gone for a dip. She had just come from the riverbank onto the ghat when her family lost trace of her. “There was another bout of stampede at 7 am owing to the ruckus made by boys who move around in groups here,” alleged Mishra, who lives in Delhi. 

She filed a missing person complaint at 10 am but hasn’t heard from authorities since then.

Ramkumar Joshi from UP’s Farrukhabad had difficulty breathing when he spoke about his wife. Pushpa Devi, 55, was missing from 4-5 am on January 29. Joshi submitted a missing person application at the Lost & Found Centre in Sector 4 but then came to the centre in Sector 3 hoping for some news.

“We were holding each other’s hands and must have been 200 metres away from the ghat when I suddenly lost her,” Ramkumar said. He said the administration should have set up separate passages for those entering and exiting the ghat.

“This is a shortcoming entirely of the administration,” he said.

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