New Delhi, India - Nearly 150 pilgrims, many of them children, were trampled to death on a hillside in northern India on Sunday, after rumors of a landslide fueled a stampede, local officials said.
Thousands of Hindu pilgrims had traveled to Naina Devi, a hilltop temple in the state of Himachal Pradesh, for a festival celebrating the Hindu mother goddess.
Heavy rains in the morning led many to leave the serpentine lines on the hillside to take cover in a shelter, local officials said. Visitors said large stones began sliding down the hillside in the late morning, leading to panic in the crowd.
“Because so many pilgrims were gathered at the shelter, the way up and down was blocked,” said Suresh Kumar, a spokesman in the police control room at the temple. “When pilgrims started pushing down and the way was very crowded, the stampede took place.”
As wealth grows among India’s middle class, travel to temples and religious sites is growing, increasing overcrowding problems, particularly during religious festivals.
Metal guard rails meant to protect temple visitors from slipping down steep drops were knocked down by the crowds, sending some tumbling down the hillside. As of Sunday evening, 145 people were dead and 37 were injured, said B. Purusharth, the deputy commissioner in Ropar, a city in Punjab State, where many of the pilgrims lived. Officials estimated that about 50 of the dead were children, many of whom had been separated from their parents by the crush.
The Naina Devi temple is on a hilltop that is reachable by a tram ride or a half-hour walk up a stepped path. Tens of thousands of pilgrims travel to the temple daily during special nine-day periods to celebrate the Hindu mother goddess in a festival called Navratras. Indian officials estimated that 20,000 to 25,000 pilgrims had gathered at the temple on Sunday, despite the heavy rains.
This is not the first time that overcrowding and panic have led to stampedes at the Naina Devi, officials said. The last stampede there was in the early 1980s.
The Himachal Pradesh government said Sunday that it would pay 25,000 rupees ($592) to the family of each victim, according to local television reports. The dead bodies were brought down the hill by tram car to Anandpur Sahib, a nearby city that is considered holy to Sikhs, officials said.