‘People, young and old, died in front of my eyes’

JAISALMER: Tears rolled down his distraught face as he tried to remove a heavy iron pole from his fractured leg. Bhema Ram (50) was amongst the fortunate lot of devotees who survived the Jasol town tragedy in Barmer district. Talking to TOI, Ram said he had come to attend the second day of Ram Katha recital with his wife. Wounds may heal soon but scenes they witnessed will forever be etched in the couple’s memory.
“People, young and old, died in front of my eyes as electric current passed through the floor like a tremor.Those who tried to escape were crushed under iron poles that a few minutes earlier had been holding straight the sprawling ‘pandal’,” he said.
A native of Padru village near Balotra, Bhema said that haunting wails of women and children reverberated through the entire ‘pandal’.
Many of the survivors who had a narrow escape in the tragedy said that many lives could have been saved had the power supply been disconnected timely by someone. But due to commotion and stampede that soon ensued after the ‘pandal’ collapsed, the people forgot to disconnect the power supply.
Thanaram Mali (50) saw a young boy wailing in his dead mother’s arms as he tried to wriggle out of the debris. “It was pleasant weather when I arrived here to listen to Ram Katha. It was drizzling outside and people inside the ‘pandal’ were dancing and clapping on the tunes of bhajans. Then strong winds picked up pace and iron poles began to swing. All of a sudden the ‘pandal’ first moved up like a floating balloon and then crashed on the crowd,” he said.
But the worst followed in quick succession. Electric wires fell on the ‘pandal’. The iron poles and ground drenched by showers aggravated the situation as electric current swept the ground. “The jubilations quickly turned into cries of pain as people began to make a dash for their lives and as a result fell on each other,” he said.
“No one had cut the power supply to the mishap site. I somehow managed to come out of the ‘pandal’ and called the engineers to disconnect the power,” he claimed. Another eyewitness Kanha Ram said that there was so much confusion and panic that people just wanted to run away.