The Kolkata puja pandal stampede at the Sarada Park, or Chorbagan, Durga Puja venue has placed police preparedness, organiser capacity planning and emergency crowd management under scrutiny after several people were killed and others injured during heavy rain on Saptami night. The exact death toll was not stated in the supplied report.
The venue had become one of the major attractions of this year’s Durga Puja, drawing its largest crowds in the three days before the incident. Its theme, “Beyond Sound”, featured an elevated, gallery-like structure around the idol that allowed visitors a 360-degree view. However, parts of the pandal were dimly lit and signage was inadequate, making it difficult for visitors to locate exits, according to the report.
Police sources said no additional arrangements were made at the venue despite the increase in footfall on Saptami. The incident occurred near the exit gate as large numbers of pandal-hoppers arrived during rain. Kolkata Police said injured people were rescued and taken to MCH, while reinforcements from the control room, fire brigade, Kolkata Police and the Disaster Management Group were sent along with ambulances and medical teams.
Additional commissioner of police (crime) Kunal Agarwal said the stampede took place near the exit gate “due to heavy rush of pandal hoppers during rain”. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said a preliminary inquiry suggested that an alleged incorrect announcement inside the pandal had contributed to the incident. He said the Special Task Force had taken up the probe and that police personnel and private security staff deployed at the venue had been ordered to be detained and interrogated.
The organiser, Pritam Sarkar, said the number of visitors inside the pandal had exceeded its capacity at one point. He said the venue had been drawing large crowds for several days and that people who intended to leave remained inside after rain began because they did not want to get drenched. “Chaos prevailed,” he told a news channel.
Residents and an eyewitness cited in the report questioned the speed and effectiveness of the response near the exit. The eyewitness alleged that police and volunteers did not do enough to clear the crowd or ensure that visitors left through the designated exit. These accounts, along with the police version and the organiser’s statement, are expected to form part of the inquiry into how the crowd accumulated and why movement through the exit broke down.
The incident has also raised questions about the deployment of police resources across Kolkata during one of the city’s busiest festival periods. The report said a section of the force was assisting a bulldozer in removing a CPM book stall in Jadavpur on Saptami, when crowd management demands were high across the city.
Rain was not an unforeseeable condition during a festival held towards the end of the monsoon. A retired police officer cited in the report said Kolkata had previously managed large Durga Puja crowds during heavy rain without a fatal stampede, and argued that adequate forces should have been positioned to prevent a rush into the pandal.
The Chorbagan incident has revived memories of the 2015 Deshapriya Park puja, where a rush to view a large Durga idol injured 11 people and led Kolkata Police to shut the venue to public viewing. The same pandal was temporarily closed in October 2025 after a dangerous crowd surge, with emergency measures activated to reduce pressure.
The Special Task Force inquiry and the questioning of police personnel, private security staff and organisers are the next formal steps identified in the supplied report. The investigation is expected to examine the announcement inside the pandal, entry and exit controls, crowd capacity, lighting, signage, rain-related sheltering and the emergency response.
