How Kumbh Mela’s VIP lanes exacerbated crowd stampede

By Yolande Du Preez | Published Jan 29, 2025

Journeying across India for the pinnacle celebration of the Hindu calendar, Laxmi and her family were sleeping by the roadside Wednesday as they waited to cleanse themselves in the sacred Ganges river. All of a sudden they were violently roused in the middle of the night by police officers, who smacked them with wooden sticks and ordered them to clear a path for other pilgrims.