By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, Jan 30, 2025: The Catholic bishops of India on January 30 offered prayers and Mass for the victims of a stampede at Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), a town in Uttar Pradesh state.
The stampede on early January 29 at the largest religious gathering in the world claimed more than 30 lives and wounded scores of people.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the deadly crush occurred after pilgrims rushed to participate in an early morning bathing ritual, jumping over barricades intended to control crowds during the event.
According to Adityanath, about 30 million people had taken a holy dip by 8 am that day.
Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CCBI), expressed deep distress over the tragedy.
“It is heartbreaking to witness such a calamity during a sacred event that draws millions in devotion,” said the cardinal, who with more than 200 prelates, is now attending the conference’s 36th plenary assembly at Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern Indian state of Odisha.
The bishops also offered special prayers for the grieving families of the victims, expressing solidarity with those affected by the disaster.
“In this time of mourning, we, the bishops of India, unite in prayer for the departed souls and their loved ones. May God grant strength to the grieving families, healing to the injured and eternal peace to those who have passed away,” Cardinal Ferrao said.
The Kumbh Mela (festival of the Sacred Pitcher) pilgrimage, is celebrated approximately every 6, 12 and 144 years, correlated with the partial or full revolution of Jupiter.
This year, about 400 million pilgrims are expected to attend the six-week Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj.
The mela has six auspicious days within the six weeks, but the four most important are January 14, January 29, February 3, and February 26.
Devotees believe that taking a dip in Prayagraj, where three rivers considered sacred in Hinduism – the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati – meet, will absolve them of sins and liberate them from the cycle of life and death.
By rotation, the ceremony is held every four years in the cities of Prayagraj, Haridwar in Uttarakhand (Ganges), Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh (Shipra River) and Nasik in Maharashtra (Godavari River.
For the current event, Prayagraj has built a tent city with electricity, water, 3,000 kitchens and 11 hospitals to accommodate visitors.
The Kumbh Melas have had a history of stampedes that killed many pilgrims.
On February 3, 1954, a stampede killed more than 800 pilgrims during the shahi snan (royal bath) during Maha Kumbh Mela at the then Allahabad.
In 1986, around 200 people were killed in a stampede at the Kumbh at Haridwar.
In 2003, a stampede at the Kumbh at Nashik killed 39 people and wounded more than one hundred.
On February 10, 2023, 42 people were killed and several others injured in a stampede after a foot bridge collapsed at the Allahabad Railway station.