Summary
- BBC Hindi’s investigation reveals at least 82 verified deaths in the Kumbh Mela 2025 crush, more than double the official figure of 37.
- Uttar Pradesh authorities quietly paid partial cash compensation in at least 26 cases, often in exchange for signed statements downplaying the cause of death.
- Despite 2,750 AI-enabled CCTVs and 50,000 deployed personnel, no emergency response reached some victims for hours, exposing a grim failure in disaster preparedness.
Beneath the Pilgrimage: The Anatomy of India’s Deadliest Religious Crush in a Decade
The Kumbh Mela is no stranger to large numbers. This year, more than 600 million pilgrims bathed at the Sangam in Prayagraj over six weeks. But it is not just devotion that left its mark on the 2025 edition—it is death, cover-up, and a mounting body count that far exceeds what the Uttar Pradesh government has acknowledged.
On 29 January 2025, during the second Shahi Snan, a crowd crush unfolded in multiple locations. The official toll: 37. But a BBC Hindi investigation spanning 11 Indian states has now verified 82 deaths through morgue slips, post-mortems, video evidence, and first-hand family interviews. Most of these families were offered hush money—₹5 lakh in cash—often without formal recognition or the full promised compensation of ₹25 lakh.
What this exposes is not just the tragedy of mass death but a deliberate strategy of minimisation, wherein grieving families were quietly compensated off-record, documents were doctored to indicate “natural causes,” and multiple crush points were erased from official narratives. The world’s largest religious gathering has become the site of India’s most understated public disaster in recent memory.
At least 26 people the UP govt claims didn’t die in the Kumbh stampede. Yet their families were handed ₹5 lakh in cash by UP Police, at home.
— Abhinav Goel (@abhinavgoel21) June 25, 2025
What’s being hidden? #kumbhmela#KumbhStampede #BBCInvestigation pic.twitter.com/7JGjhEWDDH
A Ritual of Silence: Compensation Without Acknowledgment
- 26 families received ₹5 lakh in cash, outside official records.
- 18 verified deaths received no compensation at all.
- Documents signed by victims’ families often attributed death to “health issues,” not the crush.
When Tara Devi died during the stampede, her son was handed ₹5 lakh in cash and asked to record a scripted video saying he had “received the compensation.” He was told the remainder—₹20 lakh—would follow. It never did.
The BBC uncovered similar covert payouts across Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh. In some instances, police travelled hundreds of kilometres with bundles of cash to silence grieving families. In Gopalganj and Paschim Bardhaman, residents reported police coercion to sign pre-drafted affidavits.
The pattern is chilling: formal recognition of a victim’s death would mean state liability, legal accountability, and an official increase in the death toll. Instead, authorities offered hush money to families too poor or too grief-stricken to protest. A clear majority of the victims were migrant workers, lower-caste individuals, and rural women—India’s most easily silenced demographics.
Crushed Truths: Mapping the Cover-Up Across Prayagraj
- Four separate crush points identified: Sangam Nose, Jhusi, Kalpavriksha Gate, and Airavat Marg.
- Victims’ death certificates list misleading or inaccurate locations.
- AI-CCTV and drone systems failed to trigger any effective emergency response.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed only one crush occurred—at the Sangam Nose. But BBC reporters, using GIS mapping and death verification, identified at least four separate crush sites where fatalities occurred. In many cases, the location on official documents was deliberately altered to sectors like Jhusi, which drew less media attention.
For example, families who lost loved ones at Kalpavriksha Gate described sitting with corpses for up to eight hours in the sun, with no medical help. Despite boasting about 2,750 AI-powered CCTVs, drones, and 50,000 security personnel, the Mela administration was invisible during the peak of the crisis.
Some families, like that of Shyamlal Gond from Deoria, faced an even colder bureaucracy. Gond was listed as “unidentified” despite having ID. His son had to wait four months for a death certificate, still without compensation. Others were made to sign that their relatives had “heart attacks” or “exhaustion” as the cause of death—erasing them from public memory and accountability.
Beyond the Holy Dip: Whose Devotion Must Die?
- BJP and opposition parties have remained muted amid rising public outrage.
- No official has resigned or been suspended; the judicial commission’s tenure has quietly been extended.
- Families who refused cash compensation face bureaucratic hurdles in getting recognition.
The Kumbh Mela 2025 was supposed to be a spectacle of India’s spiritual unity. Instead, it has become a reflection of how India manages mass tragedy through soft coercion and bureaucratic denial.
In UP’s Jaunpur, Dharmraj Rajbhar lost both his wife and daughter-in-law in the crush. He was handed ₹10 lakh in cash, but the state has not issued a single formal apology. In Bihar, one family refused the cash—and now finds itself without even a death certificate.
No minister has taken moral responsibility. No opposition party has called for an independent probe. The state’s own judicial commission, initially given 30 days to report, has not produced findings after five months. Meanwhile, funeral photos, blood-stained shawls, and WhatsApp voice notes shared by grieving relatives remain the only proof of lives lost in India’s most sacred gathering.
Final Reflection: Devotion That Was Never Meant to Be Counted
The tragedy at Kumbh Mela 2025 is not just about numbers. It is about the state’s systematic invisibilisation of its most vulnerable citizens. When the government can hand out envelopes of cash to suppress questions, alter death certificates, and still receive no parliamentary outrage, the democratic crisis becomes clear.
This isn’t just an administrative failure—it is a moral collapse. The story of Kumbh Mela 2025 will not be about the millions who took a dip. It will be about the dozens who died quietly, the families who were coerced into silence, and a government that counted rituals more than lives.
