Thursday, February 9, 2012

Disasters - 2011 - India - Sabarimala Stampede

The event
The 2011 Sabarimala stampede was a human stampede on 14 January 2011 at Sabarimala in Kerala, India. It broke out during an annual pilgrimage, killing 106 pilgrims and injuring about 100 more.).[1] The pilgrims were returning from a Hindu shrine on the last day of a yearly festival which attracts millions of devotees. It began after a Jeep toppled over.

Planetary Alignments and Observations

In Rasi Chart:
Jupiter – Saturn Opposition in Pisces – Virgo.
Jupiter signifies religious rituals.Saturn signifies masses. Jupiter is in exact conjunction with Uranus which shows sudden and surprise events .
Rahu and Pluto are conjunct in Sagittarius very closely. Sagittarius signifies religious places.

In Khavedamsa
Sun which signifies Temples is debilitated and is aspected by Saturn-Mars the strongest malefics and Jupiter
Rahu Ketu are conjunct with Venus in Pisces a Jupiterian sign which signifies religious piligrimages.Venus signifies Luxuries vehicles and the cause of the stampede is an SUV.

Background

Pilgrims gathering in Sabarimala for the Makarajyothi in 2010.
It is the worst recorded accident to have occurred in Sabarimala. On 14 January 1952, 66 Ayyappa pilgrims were burnt to death when two fireworks sheds caught fire, while on the same day in 1999, 52 pilgrims were killed following a stampede during their return after witnessing the Makarajyothi at pamba.[2]
The two month long pilgrimage, which had started in November 2010, had been mostly incident-free before this stampede.[3]

Stampede

The incident happened around 8 p.m. local time. Most of the dead were from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. There are various versions of the accident as reported in various newspapers and television reports. The victims were going back home through the forest after Makara Jyothi darshan, thought to be a celestial phenomenon on the hill shrine of the Hindu god Ayyappan.[3] The stampede was reportedly caused by an SUV which blocked the path, possibly after breaking down. When moved it may have overturned and caused people to stumble, triggering the stampede or by too many people running down the hill towards the road where there was already a pack of vehicles. There is a version of an accident between an autorickshaw and a Jeep. The real trigger of the incident remains a mystery given the fact that the spot where the stampede occurred is an open field.