A government-appointed fact-finding committee investigating the tragic stampede that occurred on May 3 during the annual festival at the Shri Lairai Devi temple in Shirgao, North Goa, has concluded that the incident was the result of serious administrative failures and could have been avoided entirely.
The incident claimed the lives of six devotees and left around 100 others injured in the early hours of the festival.
The committee, led by Revenue Secretary Sandip Jacques, submitted a detailed report after conducting extensive fieldwork. Their investigation included visits to the site, in-depth interactions with eyewitnesses, injured victims, event organizers, local officials, executive magistrates, and police personnel.
They also examined available documents and records related to the event. The committee’s findings point to a range of oversights and lapses in planning and execution by multiple stakeholders.
According to the report, the stampede was not an unavoidable tragedy, but rather the outcome of numerous missteps that created the conditions for a disaster.
These included inadequate planning and preparation, failure to enforce safety protocols, ignorance of previous warnings and directives, and a lack of infrastructure necessary to handle the large gathering of devotees.
A key factor identified as the immediate cause of the stampede was severe overcrowding on the sloped pathway connecting the tali (a sacred pond used for ritual cleansing) to the homkhand (the designated area where sacred fires are lit as part of the temple’s rituals).
The congestion was particularly intense near the upper section of the slope, in the vicinity of a local RBL bank branch.
The situation deteriorated further due to the lack of effective crowd management systems. Devotees, locally known as dhonds, were permitted to enter the narrow pathway from the tali in large, unregulated groups.
This uncoordinated entry caused people to pile up along the slope, creating a dangerously packed crowd.
Tensions escalated when some groups of devotees, driven by religious fervor, attempted to push forward through the crowd. Their aggressive and disorderly behavior destabilized others around them. The dense and uneven terrain of the slope compounded the problem.
A critical moment in the sequence of events occurred when a woman tripped and fell face-first on the sloped path. Her fall triggered a domino effect — several other people walking behind and beside her lost their balance and toppled over one another.
Since many people farther back in the crowd were unaware of what had happened ahead, they continued to push forward, further aggravating the situation and causing a full-blown stampede.
The committee noted that while the disaster appeared sudden, warning signs had existed. Some injured victims recalled that a smaller incident of a similar nature had occurred in the past.
Additionally, there were unconfirmed reports that a woman may have died from suffocation on the same pathway during the previous year’s festival.
While the committee was unable to find documentary evidence to confirm that particular fatality, it stressed that such reports should have prompted the organizers and authorities to review safety protocols and adopt more robust precautionary measures for future events.
The report was particularly critical of the lack of responsiveness from the district administration, police, and festival organizers. It concluded that there had been a collective failure to assess potential risks based on prior incidents and to implement effective crowd control strategies to ensure the safety of pilgrims.
In response to the tragedy, the state government had already taken administrative action by transferring both the District Magistrate and the District Superintendent of Police shortly after the incident occurred.
The committee’s findings now underscore the urgency of implementing systemic changes to prevent such tragedies in the future.
In its concluding recommendations, the committee has urged the government to overhaul event planning and crowd management protocols for large-scale religious gatherings.
This includes better infrastructure, trained personnel for crowd control, clearer demarcation of movement pathways, and real-time monitoring systems to detect and manage high-risk situations.
