Makar Sankranti tragedy: Six die in Bengal’s Sagar island

KOLKATA: Makar Sankranti festivities ended in a tragedy on Sunday evening when six women, all in their late 60s and 70s, died at the Ganga Sagar Mela on Sagar island, located about 100 km to the south of Kolkata.

Amid reports by several news channels that the pilgrims died in a stampede that broke out while they were waiting to board a launch at jetty no.5 in Kachuberia, district magistrate of South 24 Parganas, PB Salim, and local Trinamool MLA Manturam Pakhira told HT that the women died of a heart attack while waiting for the boat. Both denied reports of a stampede.

The deaths added a political dimension to the ongoing tussle between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing compensation for the kin of the dead as well as the injured pilgrims.

“Saddened by the loss of lives caused by a stampede in West Bengal. My thoughts are with the families of the deceased,” Modi tweeted.

The PMO tweeted that ex-gratia payment of `2 lakh would be given to families of the deceased and `50,000 to the injured.

The state government, however, did not announce any compensation and maintained that the deaths were not caused by any accident or stampede.

“Six people died after they fell ill. Two people died in the island on Saturday as well. There was no stampede or any incident of that nature,” Salim said.

Pakhira told HT that a large crowd was waiting for the boat when the women “fell ill”.

“A large number of people were waiting at the jetty. Several people fell ill and were taken to the temporary hospital set up at Kachuberia. The six women died of heart attack. They were all very old. The others were released after treatment,” Pakhira said over phone from the island.

State panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said he had heard that a large number of pilgrims had assembled at the jetty to return to the mainland when the incident took place.

“The high tide was approaching and the pilgrims knew that they would have to wait for almost eight hours for the low tide. They didn’t want to wait and tried to board a boat,” Mukherjee told a TV channel.