Six persons lost their lives and several others sustained injuries after a stampede broke out at the Tirupati Tirumala Temple on Jan 08. The chaos erupted when thousands rushed to the ticket counter for darshan tokens at the Tirumala Temple.

These incidents have highlighted the urgent need for better crowd control and management to prevent the loss of life during major pilgrimages

In spite of lakhs of people visiting the temple towns of Tirumala and Tirupati, stampedes involving devotees are rare. So what happened this time? We explain.

A surge of devotees at the Lord Venkateswara temple caused chaos during token distribution for Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam, leaving six dead and many injured.

Authorities of one of India’s richest temples have apologised after at least six pilgrims were killed in a stampede in the southern temple town of Tirupati. The devotees were waiting in queues to collect tokens from over 90 counters to offer prayers to Lord Venkateshwara Swamy on Wednesday when the incident took place,