Poonam Rohilla, 36, called her son just hours before boarding a train to the Maha Kumbh festival, telling him that the crowd at the New Delhi railway station at the Indian capital was overwhelming and she was considering turning back. But chaos erupted before she could.
At least 18 people were killed in the stampede on Saturday as thousands of Hindu pilgrims rushed to board a train to the festival, a Hindu religious gathering that is held once every 12 years at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Rohilla’s son, 16-year-old Akshit Rohilla, spent the night searching hospitals for any information, clinging to the hope that she was still alive. When he finally found her, she was lying lifeless in the morgue. “She wanted to come home,” he tells The Independent over the phone, his voice breaking. “She called me and said she was coming home.”
Survivors and grieving families have accused authorities of mismanagement, saying last-minute platform changes and a lack of crowd control turned a pilgrimage into a nightmare.
“My world came crashing down when I saw my mother’s body in the hospital,” Akshit says, breaking down in tears. “I fainted when I saw her. Our house is destroyed. I don’t know how we will manage without her.”
“We were roaming from 9pm until 4am, not knowing whether my mother was among the injured or the dead. The worst part was they performed the post-mortem without informing us or even letting us see her,” he says.
The festival’s origin lies in the Hindu lore that the gods spilled four drops of the nectar of immortality on Earth and, when the Moon and Jupiter align, the Ganga and the Yamuna are joined by a mystical river called Saraswati, meeting at the points where the divine nectar fell. According to the lore, any person who takes a dip in the conjoined waters during this time is cleansed of their sins and receives blessings that last for generations.
For many pilgrims this journey of a lifetime has turned into unimaginable tragedy. Another family shattered by the tragedy is that of seven-year-old Anjali, the youngest victim of the stampede.
“We got down from platform 14, but seeing the crowd, we decided to leave,” her father, Opil Singh, says. “We started climbing up, there were just six more steps left when my daughter got stuck in the middle.”
“Around 5,000-6,000 people began coming down from above. People started falling over each other. A nail pierced my daughter's head," Singh tells news outlet NDTV.
"When I found my daughter, there was no ambulance, we (went to the hospital) in an auto. There were two coolies (porters), they helped me with Rs100 (£1 approx) each. Someone took away my mobile and all the money from my pocket," says Singh.
The hospital declared his daughter dead on arrival. “If only you could have come a little sooner,” he said he was told by the doctors.
Most of the victims died from suffocation as they were crushed under the weight of the surging crowd.
Mohit Malik, whose wife Sangeeta was also killed, says he had spoken to her over a video call a night prior to the tragedy, as he was travelling for work. “She never mentioned she was planning to go (to Kumbh),” he says. Malik only learned of her death through a friend who called to inform him about the stampede.
The dead reportedly included nearly a dozen women and five children. The incident occurred on platforms 14 and 15 after the station authorities announced a change of platforms, causing confusion and chaos, reports said.
Anger is mounting over the authorities’ handling of the situation. “If the train was supposed to arrive at platform 12, why was it suddenly switched to 14?” Akshit asks. “Where was the crowd control? The government is responsible for this.”
Malik echoes the frustration. “There was no management. They keep promoting the Kumbh, but there was no safety at the station.”
Prime minister Narendra Modi has expressed his condolences, while railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced an inquiry.
Indian Railways officials were seen handing out large sums of cash to the families of those killed in the stampede outside the mortuaries of three hospitals in Delhi, reported news outlet Newslaundry.
Each bereaved family received cash payments of up to Rs1m (£9000).
Under the Railways' 2023 guidelines, only Rs50,000 (£450) can be given in cash as immediate relief for initial expenses. The remaining amount is supposed to be transferred via other payment methods, reported the outlet.
The railways announced amounts of Rs250,000 (£2280) to those grievously injured, and Rs100,000 (£900) for “simple” injuries, Himanshu Upadhyay, the chief public relations officer for the Northern Railways, confirmed to Newslaundry.
"This incident once again highlights the failure of the Railways and the insensitivity of the government. Considering the large number of devotees going to Prayagraj, better arrangements should have been made at the station. The government and administration should ensure that no one has to lose their life due to mismanagement and negligence," opposition Congress politician Rahul Gandhi said.
"This kind of a disaster taking place in the national capital, under the direct watch of the central government, shows that the government is utterly incompetent and is only capable of PR, not actual management. The government has again tried to downplay the situation. When will we know the exact figures of the dead and injured? Why were crowd control measures not in place? Why did the railways not run special trains when they knew this crowd was to be anticipated in light of the Mahakumbh?” Congress politician KC Venugopal asked.
Responding to the allegations, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician Anil Alok said: “This is not the time to do politics. However, some people are spoilt by their habits. There are two types of vultures; one is found in the sky and the other is 'political vultures'. They don't care about the death of the people but just want to point out the faults of the administration."
The tragedy follows a stampede at the Maha Kumbh just weeks earlier, which left more than 30 people dead. The government has faced criticism for mismanaging the Hindu religious festival in Prayagraj and is accused of covering up the true death toll, which reports found to be as high as 79.
India’s railway network, among the largest in the world, has faced repeated safety failures, including a 2023 train collision that killed nearly 300 people.
For Malik, no official inquiry can undo the loss. “She only wanted to be happy,” Malik says. “Now, everything has been taken away from me.”
