Two days, two temple stampedes and two more dead, with the authorities again blaming electrical wires.
Two worshippers died and at least 38 suffered injuries in a pre-dawn stampede on Monday at the Awasaneshwar Mahadev Mandir, Haidergarh, in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh.
Police claimed the devotees suddenly began running helter-skelter at 3am after one of them received an electric shock from one of the iron poles supporting the tin roofs that shelter the queueing worshippers.
When a stampede killed six people and injured 29 at the Mansa Devi Temple in Haridwar at 9am on Sunday, the Uttarakhand government too had said a "rumour" about a devotee receiving an electric shock had started the panicked melee.
Barabanki district magistrate Shashank Tripathi laid part of the blame on the local monkey population.
"Initial reports suggest that electricity started flowing through the three tin sheds on the temple premises during the Jalabhishek when an overhead electrical wire, on which some monkeys were jumping, fell on it," he said.
Tripathi did not mention any monkey deaths. "The devotees standing in the queues panicked and started running. An inquiry will clarify everything," he said.
Shiv Prasad, a devotee from village Subeha in Barabanki whose daughter was injured in the stampede, suggested a different reason why some devotees might have received electric shocks.
"Some welding was going on near the queues; the welding machine was connected to an electrical socket through an exposed wire," he said.
He added: "Relief arrived quickly because some members of the local administration and the police were outside the temple, making arrangements to shower petals on the arriving kanwariyas from a helicopter in the morning."
A large number of kanwariyas visit the temple to offer Ganga water to Shiva during the month of Shravan, when the footfall at the shrine usually crosses 1 lakh on Mondays. The management organises a mela around the temple.
DM Tripathi said the rituals resumed after a brief disruption following the stampede.
Barabanki superintendent of police Arpit Vijayvargiya said: "We rushed the injured to nearby hospitals, where two of them were declared dead on arrival."
District chief medical officer Awadhesh Kumar Yadav said: "Most of the injured have been discharged after treatment. There is one critically injured devotee at the Haidergarh community health centre. Of the 10 injured brought to the Trivediganj community health centre, two were already dead. The remaining eight are still under treatment."
A relative of an injured person told reporters on the condition of anonymity that the actual injury toll would be higher than the official count, which is based on the number of people brought to government facilities.
Some people had arrived in their own vehicles and took their injured relatives to private hospitals in Barabanki city, he said.