Simhachalam temple wall collapse: Missed writing on the wall
When Umamaheswara Rao and wife Sailaja set out to the Simhachalam hills in Visakhapatnam from their home at Chandrampalem at 2.30 a.m. on April 30, they were probably thinking of the moment they would finally fulfil a long-cherished dream: to witness the 'nijaroopa darshan' of Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy, a rare sight available only once a year during the temple's 'Chandanotsavam'.
The couple were just three years into their marriage, and life seemed good. The two software professionals, both 30 years old, were ambitious as well as deeply spiritual.
They reached the temple after short trip of 25 km and joined a sea of devotees hailing from across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and beyond. Many of them had reached the hill the previous evening (April 29) itself to avoid the rush after midnight. All had one objective: to catch a glimpse of the original form of the idol, which remains covered in sandalwood paste throughout the year except this occasion.
From around midnight, devotees began taking their place in their respective queues [sarva (free) darshan; ₹300, ₹1,000 and ₹1,500 ticket darshans]. Umamaheswara Rao, Sailaja, her mother P. Venkata Ratnam (50) and his aunt G. Mahalakshmi (55) took up their spot in the ₹300 queue, located close to Rajagopuram and the bus terminus atop the hill. Above them, on a higher elevation, a massive new brick and concrete wall towered.
The festival began with 'Suprabhatam' at 1 a.m. on April 30, followed by a few other rituals. The hereditary trustee Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju had the first darshan of the deity at 3 a.m., followed by some ministers and other VVIPs, who entered the main temple through the Rajagopuram. The darshan for common devotees was to begin from 4 a.m.
Shortly after, however, the weather took a drastic turn and heavy downpour, accompanied by gales, began pummelling the region. Naresh, a volunteer present at the site, recalls what happened next. 'There was a loud thud, and people began screaming. At first, we thought nobody was hurt, but when we reached the spot, we saw the wall had collapsed onto the queue line, and many were trapped under the debris; it was a horrifying sight.'
The hilltop, the divine abode, began echoing with wails of ambulance sirens and the screams of the injured. Seven people lost their lives that day, including Umamaheswara Rao, Sailaja, Mahalakshmi and Venkata Ratnam. While the bodies were taken to King George Hospital (KGH), the injured were shifted to Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) near Hanumanthawaka. Outside the KGH mortuary, heartbroken relatives wept inconsolably; some were stunned into stillness by what had just happened.
'We received a WhatsApp message early in the morning about the accident. I checked Mahesh's [Umamaheswara Rao] message; he had left a voice note saying he was heading to Chandanotsavam. It's hard to accept that someone so full of life is no longer with us,' says a devastated family member.
Kin demand answers
Anger and grief seized the families of the victims in the aftermath of the tragedy. The grieving kin questioned how a new wall could collapse so easily and why the devotees were allowed to line up so close to an area that was still under construction.
Many point fingers at what they call gross negligence in festival arrangements and allege that despite reviews by a group of ministers over the few weeks prior to the festival's commencement, the authorities utterly failed to ensure basic safety measures.
Some family members, reflecting on past festivals, say that while there had been instances of inconvenience and crowd management issues, they had never heard of incidents leading to deaths at the temple.
'My son was a god-fearing man. He visited many temples, but never in my worst nightmares did I imagine he would lose his life at one,' says P.V.V. Satyanarayana, father of Durga Swamy Naidu, another victim. He sits on the floor of the mortuary,face slick with tears. He had come all the way from Machavaram in East Godavari district upon hearing the news.
Accident waiting to happen
According to sources,the wall's construction was completed just five days before the festival began. Residents near the temple cannot recall a precedent to the incident at the temple. The impressive rock pillars and stone walls of the nearly 1,000-year-old temple stood the test of time and continue to inspire awe among devotees.
Shortly after the incident, the government formed a three-member committee to inquire into the issue. Deposing before the committee, the contractor had this to say: 'I was under pressure from officials to complete the work though I was against the construction of the wall, which was not part of the original plan.'
The engineer tasked with supervising the construction told the panel that he was not present at the site when the wall was constructed. 'I was on camp in Vijayawada,' he had said.
The inconsistencies in the statements of the contractor and the engineering officials were not lost on the panel, though. Its chairperson opined that proper quality checks might have been given the go-by during the wall's construction and that other infrastructure works taken up on the hilltop and on the foothills under the Centre's Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) scheme, also need to be inspected.
People familiar with the functioning of the temple said on condition of anonymity that the wall was on a higher ground while queue lines with an iron mesh were on a lower plane along the hill slope. The construction of the wall, about 15 ft. long and 10 ft. high, was taken up under the PRASHAD scheme. It was completed in haste ahead of the annual festival and the concrete curing was not done properly.
According to sources, the wall gave way owing reportedly to the incessant flow of water from the upper areas. It collapsed on the wire mesh around the queue lines and then slid down the slope along with the mesh upon the devotees, trapping eight under bricks and soil.
Personnel of the AP State Disaster Response Force (APSDRF), Police, the Fire Department and NDRF had a tough time rescuing the injured and extricating the bodies. A few roof sheets and iron supporting pillars, too, fell to the ground. A power cable was reportedly snapped, electrifying one of the iron poles. An electrician was brought in to rectify the problem.
'We managed to rescue two injured from under the debris. We retrieved seven bodies from the rubble during the operation, which lasted for nearly two-and-a-half hours,' T. Ramakrishna, RI of SDRF told The Hindu at the accident spot on the day.
'We were initially posted at the temple pushkarini (tank), which is at the foothill, as officials anticipated that a number of devotees would have a dip there before having darshan in the early hours. However, we were asked to come to the hilltop as most of the devotees were directly going to the hilltop,' said Ramana, one of the team members of SDRF 16 Battalion Visakhapatnam.
Wall without permission
Pasarla Prasad, a former member of the Simhachalam Temple Trust Board and former corporator, says the wall was constructed without authorisation.
Another former member of the temple trust board Dadi Devi says that the infrastructure works at the temple had been neglected by the Endowments Department as well as the Tourism Department, which executes the PRASHAD scheme. 'There was no inspection of works by officials, and political interference compounded the problem. The construction of Kalyana Mandapams was taken up at Srinivasa Nagar on the foothills about six years ago, but they are yet to be completed,' Dadi Devi says.
'There is no internal Vigilance Wing in the temple. Works below ₹5 lakh do not require the permission of the Endowments Commissioner. On completion of infra works, third party inspection is needed. The work has to be tested at some places randomly to ensure quality of the construction,' says Pasarla Prasad.
A devotee, seeking anonymity, says that a viewpoint built on the way to the hilltop was done in a hurry and has not been provided with a railing or protection wall. 'Many devotees go to this point to take selfies,' the devotee adds.
Tragedies at temples
The Simhachalam incident is the second major temple tragedy in the State this year. In January, a stampede during the distribution of tokens for the Vaikunta Dwara Darshan at Tirumala left six dead and several others injured. Lack of proper crowd management and sudden opening of gates were said to have contributed to the tragedy. There were also allegations of lack of coordination between TTD Trust Board and officials. It may also be recalled that Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan had sought a public apology from the TTD Board and the officials.
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