Two deadly back-to-back stampedes in north India at religious events in the past few days in Haridwar and Barabanki pose the troubling question of how prepared India is to manage sudden crowd surges. The crush at Haridwar took the lives of at least eight people at the Mansa Devi temple, while two people died at the Avsaaneshwar temple in Barabanki.

In both instances, there was panic triggered by a rumour of electrocution in the former, and the collapse of electrical wires onto a tin shed in the latter was caused by monkeys.

These incidents may seem small compared to the large-scale mortality at the ghastly stampede at a satsang convened by Bhole Baba in Hathras, UP, in July 2024, in which 121 people lost their lives, but........

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