Kerala in mourning for 102 Sabarimala stampede deaths (Third Lead)

VANDIPERIYAR/KUMILY - Grieving relatives Saturday thronged mortuaries to identify their kin among the dead in Kerala’s Sabarimala tragedy, which has claimed 102 lives so far, according to Idukki district authorities.

A government report Saturday said the Friday night stampede in the Pulumedu forest was caused after a tiff between autorickshaw and taxi drivers and pilgrims turned violent.

Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who Saturday morning visited Kumily near Pulumedu stampede site, announced that the government will seek judicial probe into the tragedy. The state has declared three days of mourning.

Achuthanandan told reporters that the government will grant a compensation of Rs.500,000 to the families of each of those killed. Also Rs.50,000 will be granted to the seriously injured and Rs.25,000 to those with minor injuries.

Nearly 60 people are said to be injured.

The stampede occurred around 8 p.m. Friday when the pilgrims were returning after watching the celestial Makara Jyothi light, the most important event of the three-month pilgrimage, from a hillock some 30 km from the Sabarimala temple in Pathanamthitta district, dedicated to Lord Ayyappa.

The Pulumedu forested area is about 10 km from the Vandiperiyar town. Pilgrims gather at its hillock to watch the Makara Jyothi of sabarimala shrine.

A report of the state forest department said a tiff between autorickshaw and taxi drivers and pilgrims turned violent, leading to the stampede.

The report said a huge crowd had gathered at the Pulumedu hillock, and and after seeing the Makara Jyothi light, some of the devotees got into an autorickshaw to go back to Vandiperiyar as the driver was charging less than the jeeps that were being run as taxis.

This sparked off a quarrel between the auto and jeep drivers and some devotees too joined in. The argument turned ugly when some angry pilgrims smashed the windscreens of the jeeps, leading to panic among the crowd and that caused the stampede, the report said.

A witness said the road leading to the hillock was narrow and the crowds returning were huge and unmanageable. The policemen were few to handle the commotion.

The bodies were first brought to the Vandiperiyar Government Hospital and from there they was moved to the Government Hospital in Kumily in Idukki district, nearly 15 km from the accident site, where a team of 60 doctors conducted autopsies.

Several grieving devotees tried to identify their near and dear ones among the dead while others tended to the injured. Some of the bodies have been taken home by relatives.

More than 74 victims have been identified. Of them, one was from Sri Lanka, 29 from Tamil Nadu, 25 from Karnataka, 16 from Andhra Pradesh, and three from Kerala, hospital authorities said.

Seven people have been admitted at Theni Medical College in Tamil Nadu, which is near to the Kerala border.

Earlier, state Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, who visited the Kumily hospital, said that a jeep had lost control and rammed into some pilgrims when over a lakh people were returning to the base of the hillock, leading to the chaos.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Achuthanandan Saturday morning to convey his grief. He also sanctioned a relief of Rs.1 lakh each to the kin of those killed and Rs.50,000 for the injured from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, PMO sources in New Delhi said.

Calling it a national tragedy, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said he had directed the defence forces to see that all help is provided.

State Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi also visited the Kumily Government Hospital.

The Sabarimala temple is in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, situated in the Western Ghat ranges at an altitude of 914 metres above the sea level, four kilometres uphill from the Pampa river.

Pamba, the base camp to the Sabarimala temple, has been overflowing with pilgrims the past few days.

The sighting of the Makara Jyothi flame on the horizon marks the finale of the two-month-long pilgrim season at the mountain shrine.