Control crowd flow, stamp out the chaos
BCCL - Non Copyright
Synopsis
The Chinnaswamy Stadium incident highlights the urgent need for improved crowd management strategies in India. Data-driven approaches, combining real-time monitoring with mathematical modeling, are crucial to regulate crowd movement and ensure safety. While administrative experience exists, better infrastructure, smarter planning, and tailored awareness programs are essential to prevent future tragedies, especially considering the irrational nature of crowd behavior in India.
By ET Bureau
Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru was yet another horrific reminder that outdated protocols for crowd control are inefficient - fatally so. While stampedes and crowd crushes can be reasoned to be aberrations, they are becoming yet another of India's ignominious signature tunes. What's needed - urgently, implementationally - are data-driven crowd management strategies that use modelling and real-time processing to regulate movement and ensure safety. Real-time inputs from surveillance cameras, aerial monitoring and location-based software can be combined with mathematical modelling of crowd behaviour.
Much of India's crowd management capability has evolved from handling religious events in tightly packed locations, like during Durga Puja in West Bengal. There is wealth of administrative experience that can be paired with improved analytics to nip such accidents in the bud. Some thought should also be given to reducing crowd size through staggered visits and creation of alternative destinations - an approach that may be more feasible for non-religious gatherings. Being the world's largest populated country doesn't mean that our crowds have to be deadly.
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Administrators have considerable experience in crowd management. But accidents like the one in Bengaluru underscore the need for better infrastructure and smarter planning. Since crowd behaviour in India is largely irrational, there are limits to programmed approaches. Timely human intervention is frequently what prevents disaster. A key metric in crowd management is the dispersal rate, which influences both arrival rate and behaviour of people who are delayed. Scheduling arrivals can ease some pressure on dispersal, but greater capacity is needed at exits than at entry points. Time spent inside confined spaces can also be reduced through digitally administered services. This means time-specific caps on absolute numbers. Surge barriers should be designed with specific congregations in mind. Awareness needs to be tailored - cricket fans may require a different approach than pilgrims.Much of India's crowd management capability has evolved from handling religious events in tightly packed locations, like during Durga Puja in West Bengal. There is wealth of administrative experience that can be paired with improved analytics to nip such accidents in the bud. Some thought should also be given to reducing crowd size through staggered visits and creation of alternative destinations - an approach that may be more feasible for non-religious gatherings. Being the world's largest populated country doesn't mean that our crowds have to be deadly.
