2023.12.25 (Vrindavan Today News): Vrindavan witnessed an inundation of devotees preceding Christmas and New Year. The entire city was packed with the crowd that was estimated around 7 lakhs on Christmas and weekend holidays. Despite the efforts to control the crowd by the police, the chaos prevailed.
As usual the Banke Bihari Temple was thronged by the devotees, who were seeking a glimpse of the Revered Lord on Sunday. The elderly people and children were stuck in the small lanes leading to the temple. They were seen crying and elderly struggling to breathe. Similarly the lanes leading to Nidhivan was also overcrowded.
In the narrow lanes of the temple, children cried amidst the crowd’s pressure, while people supported each other, trying to evade the crush against walls. A similar scene unfolded in the evening as devotees queued up well before the temple gates were opened. The enthusiasm to glimpse the deity clashed with the pressure of the crowd, creating a chaotic situation until the temple closed at night.
Umesh Saraswat, the temple’s Deputy Manager, disclosed that nearly seven lakh devotees had visited throughout the day. To prevent any untoward incident, the number of private guards increased from 56 to 117. Thirty exhaust fans were installed owing to the surging crowds.
The crowd pressure was so immense that resulted into the death of two senior citizens near Banke Bihari Temple. Smt. Bina Gupta (70) from Ganj Bazar, Maholi, Sitapur and Manju Mishra (58) from Adhartal, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh died on Sunday. According to the District Administration sources the deceased were patients of heart disease and blood pressure.
Earlier in 2022, amidst the celebrations of Shri Krishna Janmashtami at the Shri Banke Bihari Temple during the Mangla Aarti, the chaos claimed two lives. More than a dozen others fell severely ill during these events.Following the tragic deaths of two women on Sunday, the administration and police have tightened security measures, setting the path to the temple in two and a half hours due to excessive crowding. Families, like Arvind Singh from Delhi, found their children exhausted after the arduous journey, they experienced the strenuous impact of the overcrowded affair.
Following the deaths of two women on Sunday, the administration and police have become more vigilant. Due to the heightened crowd, the distance to the temple was covered in over two and a half hours.
