A stampede-like situation was seen at Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh on July 26 where several devotees were injured.
The crowd management was affected and situation worsened due to visits by VIPs including chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and BJP leader Uma Bharti.
The incident took place at gate number four of the temple. The video of the incident shows was circulated on social media.
The huge gathering was due to the first Monday of the holy month of Shravan. Several tumbled down and others fell over leading to one of the barricade gates getting damaged, an official said.
"At around 8:30am, a large number of people tried to enter for darshan and in the process broke the barricade at gate number four of the temple complex. After the barricade broke, several people tried to run towards the main deity but thankfully there was no untoward incident," the temple's assistant administrator Moolchand Joonwal told PTI.
"Due to it being the first Monday of the holy month of Shravan, people were allowed to stand in queues for darshan apart from pre-booking. However, the crowd that turned up was much larger than what we expected," he said.
The Mahakaleshwar temple is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas of lord Shiva.
As per the NDTV report, the temple reopened last month but allowed are only those who had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine or had a negative RT-PCR test report issued 48 hours prior to the visit.
The temple has permitted upto 3,500 devotees to enter the premises between 6 am and 8 pm with seven time slots of two hours each, wherein 500 people allowed in each slot.
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The temple officials said, VIPs like Bharti and Chouhan who chose to visit the temple on Monday, along with their families which made it worse for the devotees and the administration.
CM Chouhan also tweeted a video link of the pooja at the temple.
Speaking about the incident, Ujjain District Collector Ashish Singh said that it was an exception, and social distancing would be ensured in the future.
The daily quoted Singh as saying, "We will sit and plan for next Monday. COVID protocol cannot be followed in the kind of free-for-all we had today. There were also too many people in one go. We will revise the plan. We will ensure social distancing.”
Eye witnesses said social distancing and other COVID-19 norms were violated as people queued up outside the temple.
Despite grave warnings about an imminent third wave of COVID-19 in India, many across the country continue to break COVID protocols and defy social distancing, potentially endangering the lives of thousands of others.
Professor Samiran Panda, a senior scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) warned that the third wave of COVID-19 will hit India around August-end, where the country will see almost 1 lakh cases every single day.
Addressing the severity of the third wave, Professor Panda says that if the virus doesn't further mutate, then the situation will be similar to the first wave, reported India Today. But if it does mutate, then things could be worse. However, Panda explains that while the third wave might not be as devasting as the second wave India witnessed, a low vaccination rate and easing of restrictions will lead to a surge in cases.
Along with Professor Panda, NITI Aayog's Dr VK Paul has also issued a warning saying the next 100-125 days are critical in the fight against COVID-19.
Addressing a press conference, he said the world is moving towards the third wave of COVID and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mentioned this and said it is a warning that everything cannot be taken for granted.
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