Bengaluru: What was meant to be a day of celebration in Bengaluru turned into a major tragedy. After Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) won their first IPL title in 18 years, thousands of fans gathered at Chinnaswamy Stadium to join the victory procession. But the massive crowd soon went out of control. A stampede broke out at gate no 7, leading to the death of 11 people and injuring many others.
According to eyewitnesses, the people who fell were trampled in the chaos. Many were unable to breathe or get back on their feet. Doctors confirmed that five women and six men were among the dead. The government announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the families of the deceased.
This is not the only incident. India has witnessed multiple stampedes over the years – at temples, festivals, railway stations and even movie screenings.
Stampede incidents in 2025
In January 2025, six people died at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh during a rush for Vaikuntha Dwara Darshanam tickets. In February, a stampede at New Delhi Railway Station killed 18 people as pilgrims rushed to reach the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj.
Maha Kumbh itself saw a separate stampede that claimed 30 lives. In May, Goa reported a stampede during a temple festival in Shirgao, where six more people died and around a hundred were injured.
Previous incidents
2024 saw even more figures. At a satsang in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, led by Narayan Sakar Hari, also known as Bhole Baba, a stampede killed 121 people. Most of the victims were women and children. A similar incident in Hyderabad took place in December 2024, when a woman died and a boy was injured during the screening of Allu Arjun’s film ‘Pushpa 2’. The crowd had gathered in huge numbers, and the lack of crowd control proved deadly.
In March 2023, the collapse of a stepwell slab during a Ram Navami event in Indore killed 36 people. In 2022, 12 people were killed in a stampede at the Vaishno Devi temple on New Year’s Day. In 2013 in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia district, a rumour that a river bridge was collapsing sparked panic, and the stampede that followed killed 115 people.
The core reasons behind these stampedes are usually the same – heavy crowding, lack of preparation, narrow entry routes, and the sudden spread of fear or rumours.
