Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 03:53am on 02 Nov 2025,Sunday India
A tragic stampede at the privately-run Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, Kasibugga in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, on November 1 killed nine devotees—including eight women and a 13-year-old boy—and injured over 25 others. Many of the victims were economically disadvantaged: farm hands, vegetable vendors and a widow who could not afford a pilgrimage to Tirumala and instead visited the temple locally. The surge occurred during the Ekadashi observance when the crowd swelled to around 25,000 – far above the temple’s capacity of 3,000 – triggering a collapse of a railing in a narrow queue area. A government inquiry has been ordered and the temple builder booked under culpable homicide charges, highlighting ongoing crowd-management failures.
