Tragic Stampede in Hathras District Highlights Need for Improved Safety

Context:

Recently, a tragic stampede in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district claimed over 100 lives. This devastating incident adds to a long list of similar tragedies that have occurred during religious gatherings and festivals across India over the past two decades. These events underscore the ongoing challenges of managing large crowds in confined spaces and highlight the urgent need for improved safety measures.

Relevance:

GS III: Disaster Management

Dimensions of the Article:

1. Understanding Stampedes
2. India’s Initiatives to Control Stampedes
3. Improving Stampede Prevention
4. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
5. Disaster Management Act, 2005

Understanding Stampedes

• A stampede refers to a sudden, chaotic movement of a crowd, often resulting in injuries and fatalities. It typically occurs due to perceived danger, overcrowding, or a collective pursuit of something desirable.
• Types of Stampedes
  • Unidirectional Stampedes: Occur when a crowd moving in one direction encounters a sudden obstruction, such as a barrier collapse or abrupt stop.
  • Turbulent Stampedes: Happen in uncontrolled crowds or panic-induced situations where movements merge from multiple directions.
• Fatalities and Causes
  • Stampedes can lead to fatalities through traumatic asphyxia, heart attacks, and direct injuries due to crowd pressure and panic-induced behaviors.
  • Factors like lack of lighting, poor crowd flow management, and structural failures amplify stampede risks.
• Impact of Stampedes
  • Survivors often experience long-term psychological trauma such as PTSD.
  • Economically disadvantaged individuals are disproportionately affected, impacting families and community cohesion.
  • The aftermath involves significant medical costs, legal issues, and damage to infrastructure.

India’s Initiatives to Control Stampedes

• The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has implemented guidelines for safe crowd management during festivals:
  • Regulating traffic flow, using barricades, and displaying route maps.
  • Enhancing surveillance with CCTV and police presence to deter crimes.
  • Ensuring medical readiness with ambulances and clear signage to nearby hospitals.
  • Educating attendees on exit routes and maintaining calm during gatherings.
• NDMA advocates for precautions like safe electrical installations, monitoring of hazardous materials, and fire prevention measures.
• Support for international conferences on disaster resilience underscores India’s commitment to collective safety and disaster preparedness.

Improving Stampede Prevention

• Deploy advanced sensor networks (thermal, LiDAR) to monitor crowd density in real-time and predict surges using AI-driven models.
• Introduce RFID tags in tickets for tracking crowd movement, identifying congested areas, and enabling targeted communication through displays.
• Utilize drones equipped with cameras and thermal imaging for crowd surveillance, anomaly detection, and emergency announcements.
• Implement crowd-responsive lighting and bioluminescent pathways to guide movement and reduce panic in emergencies.
• Install interactive displays providing real-time information on wait times, evacuation routes, and safety protocols in multiple languages.
• Conduct public awareness campaigns to educate attendees on crowd safety, proper behavior during emergencies, and the importance of following event guidelines.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)

• National Disaster Management Authority, abbreviated as NDMA, is an apex Body of Government of India, with a mandate to lay down policies for disaster management.
• NDMA was established through the Disaster Management Act enacted by the Government of India in 2005. Hence, NDMA is a Statutory body.
• The vision of NDMA is “To build a safe and disaster resilient India by developing a holistic, proactive, multi-disaster oriented and technology - driven strategy through a culture of prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response”.
• NDMA is responsible for framing policies, laying down guidelines and best-practices for coordinating with the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) to ensure a holistic and distributed approach to disaster management.
• It is headed by the Prime Minister of India and can have up to nine other members. Since 2014, there have been four other members.
• The tenure of the members of the NDMA shall be five years.
• The phrase disaster management is to be understood to mean ‘a continuous and integrated process of planning, organising, coordinating and implementing measures, which are necessary or expedient for prevention of danger or threat of any disaster, mitigation or reduction of risk of any disaster or severity of its consequences, capacity building, preparedness to deal with any disaster, prompt response, assessing the severity or magnitude of effects of any disaster, evacuation, rescue, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction’.

Disaster Management Act, 2005

• The Disaster Management Act, 2005, (23 December 2005) received the assent of The President of India on 9 January 2006.
• The Act extends to the whole of India.
• The Act provides for “the effective management of disasters and for matters connected there with or incidental thereto.”
• The Act calls for the establishment of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
• The Act enjoins the Central Government to Constitute a National Executive Committee (NEC).
• All State Governments are mandated under the act to establish a State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA).
• The Chairperson of District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will be the Collector or District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner of the district.
• The Act provides for constituting a National Disaster Response Force “for the purpose of specialist response to a threatening disaster situation or disaster” under a Director General to be appointed by the Central Government.
• Definition of a “disaster” in the DM Act states that a disaster means a “catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man-made causes.
• The objective of the Act is to manage disasters, including preparation of mitigation strategies, capacity-building and more.
• The Act contains the provisions for financial mechanisms such as the creation of funds for emergency response, National Disaster Response Fund and similar funds at the state and district levels.
• The Act also devotes several sections various civil and criminal liabilities resulting from violation of provisions of the act.

-Source: The Hindu