Stampede leaves 6 dead in Jagannath Rath Yatra, Puri

On the auspicious occasion of the annual Rath Yatra (the Chariot Festival) in Puri, mishappening in the form of stampede took the lives of 6 people and left several injured. The incident happened when the devotees broke the barricade and tried to get closer to the deities while they were being taken out from the temple for the usual rituals.

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As of now, the official figure puts the toll to six but it could rise further as several others are admitted in the hospital in critical state. The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has ordered for an administrative inquiry of the incident and also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh to the family of each victim who died in the accident.

Lakhs of devotees gathered at Puri on Friday to join the festivities of the grandest festival of east India, Jagannath Rath Yatra. The Bada Danda (grand road) was flooded with the devotees who were struggling to catch a glimpse of Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Devi Subhadra.

The security was strict and the festival, as per the reports, was being carried on smoothly until noon. The chariot pulling started at 4 pm after conducting the indispensable rites and rituals, including Chherapahanra (cleaning of Rathas by the Gajapati king with a golden broom).

Rath Yatra, the festival of chariots of Lord Jagannath is celebrated every year at Puri, the temple town in Orissa, at the east coast of India. The deities are taken out from the temple precincts in an elaborate ritual procession to their respective chariots. After a stay for seven days, the deities return to their abode in Srimandira.

It is considered very auspicious to touch the rope by which the chariots are drawn or even to have a glimpse of the deities. Thus, the huge colourfully decorated chariots are drawn by hundreds and thousands of devotees on the Bada Danda.

Although the damage of the rail tracks between Balasore and Howrah led to the cancellation and diversion of a number of trains, it could not affect the number of devotees coming to the holy town to participate in the festivities of the grand procession of its own kind.