Covering a stampede

Passengers board an overcrowded train for Prayagraj’s Mahakumbh at the New Delhi railway station on February 15, 2025. At least 18 people were killed and more than a dozen injured in a stampede that broke out that night at the crowded railway station.
| Photo Credit: PTI

In India, nobody bats an eye when they see crowded railway stations or men hanging from the open doors of the general compartment of a train. So, when a video landed in my inbox on February 15, 2025 showing a jam-packed station and people jostling with one another to board a train, I found nothing unusual or alarming about it.

However, within the next few minutes, news wires announced that there was a “stampede-like situation” at the New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS). This was contradicted by the Chief Public Relations Officer of Northern Railways, Himanshu Upadhyay, who in a public statement claimed that news of a stampede was just a “rumour”. At midnight, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena made a public statement condoling the deaths of the victims of the stampede. However, within the next few minutes, Mr. Saxena edited his post, removing any mention of deaths or a stampede. The Railways Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said on social media that the situation was “under control”.

As one can imagine, these conflicting statements made it a challenging task for journalists working for national dailies. Our deadline was looming, but authorities continued to underplay the situation hours after it occurred, which meant that we could not communicate the facts of the night. As a result, readers across India woke up the next morning to multiple newspapers carrying headlines that did not confirm the number of casualties.

Also read: Delhi stampede: A list of major stampedes in India

In sharp contrast to the speed in communicating factually correct information was the speed with which post-mortems were carried out that night. By 2.30 a.m. on February 16, 2025, while people continued to search for their loved ones at various hospitals, some post-mortems were completed. Having reported on a number of major disasters, I was taken aback at the pace at which this was happening. At the station too, urgency dictated the mood: all the markers of a stampede — shoes, garment pieces, and blood marks — were removed or scrubbed off.

That night, I visited two hospitals where some bodies were yet to be identified and claimed. When I reached the third hospital around 3 a.m., I saw the police recording the statement of a man. The man had carried his daughter’s blood-covered body to the hospital and was being asked to narrate the happenings of the night. As soon as his statement was recorded, he was quickly escorted by the hospital staff to the mortuary where his daughter’s body lay. The post-mortem had been completed. I learned later that the body was released within the next hour and the man was given compensation of ₹10 lakh in cash.

While watching the distraught man, I realised that he had not got any time to process the tragedy. He looked confused and tired. In that moment, I learned a painful lesson — to pause and mourn the loss of loved ones is a luxury in India.

The next morning, I visited the hospitals again. By then, the bodies of the victims of the stampede had been released from the mortuaries. The families, accompanied by the police, had taken them. The families had been given compensation, as declared by the Railways Ministry, in cash, and had been sent off to their homes in Delhi, Bihar, and Haryana. They had been sent away before reporters could record their testimonies.

The injured were getting discharged, irrespective of the severity of their wounds. They were receiving compensation in cash from a railway official, and a man in civilian clothes was recording videos while asking the survivors whether they had got the full compensation.

The events revealed how desperately the government was trying to cover up the stampede — first by downplaying it and then by providing a picture of normalcy. The country may move on quickly from this stampede, just as it did from the Maha Kumbh stampede a fortnight ago.

alisha.d@thehindu.co.in