Bengaluru Tragedy: Why India Keeps Suffering Stampedes

The descent of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL celebration into tragedy last week, has once again underscored the perils of inadequate crowd management, a long-standing issue in a densely populated country like India. What should have been a moment of pride and festivity quickly descended into chaos, revealing critical gaps in planning, foresight, and execution.Managing large gatherings in India demands precision, coordination, and unwavering discipline. Traditionally, it is religious congregations like Kumbh Mela and Kanwar Yatra that have drawn massive crowds. In recent years, however, political rallies and high-profile sporting events have emerged as major crowd magnets, often with less structured protocols and more unpredictable dynamics.Conflicting reports have surfaced regarding whether Bengaluru police had denied permission for the RCB event and whether that denial was ever communicated effectively. Some accounts suggest that the state govt cleared the celebrations on June 3, allegedly bypassing police input or acting even before the IPL final concluded.One uncomfortable truth persists: Law enforcement agencies are increasingly unable to enforce their assessments in the face of political and public pressure. Their authority, already stretched, is frequently undermined, often at the cost of public safety.In this instance, the conduct of RCB management, DNA (event organisers), and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) came across not just as indifferent, but brazenly arrogant. Despite police raising red flags, organisers went ahead with the event. Shockingly, the celebration wasn’t halted even after tragedy struck.Offering free entry only worsened the situation, triggering a crowd surge that proved impossible to control. A more prudent approach would have been to issue capped online passes on a first-come-first-serve basis.Former Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao has accused Karnataka’s chief minister and deputy chief minister of scapegoating police, noting that it was their own presence at the event which placed police in an uncomfortable position. When top political leaders attend such functions, law enforcement finds it difficult, if not impossible, to deny permission.The CM’s and deputy CM’s attendance lent a veneer of official legitimacy to the event, effectively overriding police advisories. Ideally, the state govt should have backed police’s recommendation to postpone the celebration in light of safety risks. But it seems that in the rush to ride RCB’s wave of popularity, caution and warnings were brushed aside, leading to a completely preventable disaster. Once it’s clear that police had strongly resisted the celebrations, making it a scapegoat is unethical.Both organisers and authorities failed to conduct a meaningful risk assessment ahead of the event. In an era where social media analytics and ground-level intelligence offer valuable tools for anticipating turnout, such oversight is inexcusable.Had these tools been used, early warnings could have been issued to the public, urging fans to avoid gathering in large numbers. Controlled online distribution of passes, limited entry, and clearly defined seating would have helped manage attendance more responsibly. Layered security checkpoints and a structured crowd flow plan could have regulated access to the stadium vicinity.Even if the pre-event assessment failed, crowd behaviour on the ground should have been closely monitored in real time. Drones, CCTV, cellular data…technology today allows real-time analysis of crowd density in any area. Attention to growing crowd buildup could at the least have prompted last-minute control alerts across television and social media, discouraging further arrivals.In cases of dangerous crowd buildup we need to spread the crowd to reduce its density, so strong barricades were required on the outer periphery of 2-3kms once the alert was raised. Emergency barricades, cordon zones, and quick deployment of crowd dispersal teams on the outer periphery of the stadium might have served as effective fallback mechanisms to contain the situation before it spiralled out of control.Crowds are indeed becoming unruly in India with little or no patience and discipline. But Wednesday’s tragedy is a brutal reminder that emotion and spectacle must never override safety and prudence. Crowd management is not a matter of convenience. It is a specialised discipline requiring scientific precision, inter-agency cooperation, and above all, political will.This incident should trigger a systemic overhaul in crowd management protocols. Police warnings must be taken seriously. After all, it is they who bear the brunt on the ground. Strict crowd control measures, digital monitoring, and pre-emptive planning must become the norm rather than the exception.Crucially, the accountability chain must not stop with police. Until every stakeholder from organisers to political leaders is held responsible, celebrations will continue to teeter on the edge of catastrophe.The writer served as DG of Uttarakhand police and is VC, Sports University of Haryana