The number of Sabarimala pilgrims who died in the stampede that occurred at Pulmedu near Vandiperiyar on Friday night has gone up to 102.
Of the dead persons, 25 were from Karnataka, 18 were from Andhra Pradesh, 27 from Tamil Nadu and five from Kerala. As many as 12 bodies are yet to be identified and six of the dead are children.
More than one lakh people had congregated at Pulmedu on Friday to see the celestial Makarajyothi which marks the culmination of the Sabarimala pilgrimage season. The stampede occurred when they were descending the narrow forest path.
Doctors who conducted the postmortem of the bodies at the Kumili hospital from Saturday morning said that most of the pilgrims died of severe internal injuries after being trampled over by a panicked crowd.
Relatives of the dead have started taking the bodies back home. The unidentified bodies were being embalmed to be kept at the Kumili Hospital.
Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who rushed to Kumili in the morning along with his Cabinet colleagues, announced a probe by a sitting judge of the high court into the incident. He added that the next of kin of those who died would be given `5 lakh each and the injured `50,000.
Though authorities have not come up with a proper explanation for the tragedy so far, rescue workers have said that the stampede was triggered after several pilgrims descending the path in the darkness tripped over iron-chain barricades put up by the police. Pilgrims who lost their loved ones also blamed authorities for allowing jeeps to travel down the narrow path thick with people and said this had caused the shocking tragedy. In his preliminary report, the Idukki district collector has also said that the overturning of a jeep had caused the stampede.
However, Mr Achuthanandan refused to dwell on the issue and said the reasons would be brought out by the judicial probe. He lost his cool when mediapersons continued to raise questions on the failure of crowd control measures. “You should stick to the facts and not write whatever comes to your minds,” he said.
State home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, however, said the government would look into the complaints that there were not enough police personnel to control crowds at Pulmedu. The Congress-led Opposition, the United Democratic Front, has also accused the government of failing to protect the pilgrims and urged it to increase the compensation to the families of the dead to `10 lakh.
It may be recalled that a similar stampede that occurred on Makarajyothi day in 1999 had killed more than 50 pilgrims.