Initial reports show three factors caused the recent puja pavilion tragedy. Rain drove many people inside, while narrow exits and poor policing made the crowd management fail. These risks were foreseeable, much like the 2024 Hathras crush that killed 121 people. Authorities now face tough questions about why prevention was ignored.
At least three factors, based on initial reports, seem to have led to the tragedy — rain that drove people into the puja pavilion for shelter, outstripping its capacity; narrow exit and entry points that typically contribute to crowd build-up; and inadequate policing arrangements at the venue which incapacitated crowd management. None of these factors are unforeseeable or can’t be hedged against. Proper arrangements for rain shelters — October rains in Kolkata are not unusual — could have prevented over-crowding in the pavilions, as would have wide entry and exit points allowing emergency evacuation. The indispensability of the latter has perhaps been spelt out in every such accident, including the Hathras crowd crush of 2024 that killed 121 people.
With the puja acquiring a sharpened focus due to the change in government in West Bengal, why were adequate policing arrangements for oversight and crowd management, as well as emergency support, synonymous with such events, not prioritised? Why did action on the ground not meet the slogans? There have been some arrests, and those at the points of failure would likely be brought to book, but why was such alacrity missing in prevention? These questions will continue to haunt the authorities long after the deity takes leave of her devotees.