Several major Kolkata Durga Puja pandals shut or restricted entry after the Chorbagan tragedy, while organisers at Chetla Agrani evacuated visitors when a crowd surge followed a spell of rain on Saptami evening.
At Chetla Agrani in south Kolkata, organisers stopped further entry, opened exit points and removed barricades after volunteers and police assessed that the crowd inside was building rapidly. Sabyasachi Chowdhury of Chetla Agrani said the rainfall had led to a sharp increase in the number of people gathering inside the pandal.
“The volunteers managing the crowd were concerned. The police assessed the situation and ordered an evacuation, and we complied immediately,” Chowdhury said. He added that the organisers closed the entry gates, opened the exits and removed the barricades so visitors could disperse quickly. According to him, the situation did not reach the point of becoming a stampede.
The action came shortly after the Chorbagan incident in north Kolkata. Several other high-footfall pujas, including Tala Prattoy, College Square and Md Ali Park, also stopped entry or shut down their celebrations as a precaution. Md Ali Park and College Square closed their pujas in response to the loss of lives at Chorbagan, while Tala Prattoy halted entry pending a fresh review of its crowd-management arrangements.
Ritesh Tiwari, the primary organiser of Tala Prattoy, said the committee had acted on the chief minister’s advice because the theme-based pandal used dim lighting. “We will reassess our illumination and entry-exit points, and only after a detailed crowd-management assessment with police and other competent authorities will we reopen our pandal for revellers,” he said.
At Allen Park, which is hosting Durga Puja for the first time, organisers stopped the laser show and music. General secretary Navin Mishra said the decision was taken in response to the deaths at Chorbagan and to tone down the celebrations.
Other major crowd-pullers chose to continue with additional controls. Santosh Mitra Square said it had widened entry and exit points and was limiting the number of people inside. Sajal Ghosh, one of the organisers, said the committee was in talks with the government and would shut the pandal systematically if directed to do so.
Suruchi Sangha in Chetla increased the number of volunteers and asked visitors to keep moving rather than gather in front of the idol. Organiser Sourav Sikdar said the pandal’s open layout meant it did not currently need to shut, while crowd movement was being monitored.
The closures and restrictions place crowd management at the centre of Kolkata’s festival operations, where temporary structures, narrow access routes, weather-related surges and large visitor volumes can quickly change conditions inside a pandal. The affected organisers are now coordinating with police and other authorities on entry, exit, lighting, capacity and visitor movement before deciding whether normal operations can resume.
