INDIA

Natural disasters in India, many of them related to

the climate of India, cause massive losses of Indian

life and property. Droughts, flash floods, cyclones,

avalanches, landslides brought on by torrential

rains, and snowstorms pose the greatest threats.

Other dangers include frequent summer dust storms,

which usually track from north to south; they cause

extensive property damage in North India^[1] and

deposit large amounts of dust from arid regions. Hail

is also common in parts of India, causing severe

damage to standing crops such as rice and wheat.

Stampedes CHRONOLOGY

REUTERS - At least 103 people died and 150 were injured in a stampede on Tuesday at a Hindu temple in Rajasthan, police said.

Following is a short chronology of some of the worst stampedes in the last 20 years.

March 1988 - In Kathmandu, 70 fans are killed after a stampede towards locked exits in a hailstorm at Nepal's national soccer stadium -- the country's worst civilian disaster.

July 1990 - Inside al-Muaissem tunnel near Mecca in Saudi Arabia, 1,426 pilgrims are crushed to death. The accident occurs on Eid al-Adha (The Feast of Sacrifice), Islam's most important feast at the end of the annual Haj pilgrimage.

May 1994 - Also in Saudi Arabia, a stampede near Jamarat Bridge kills 270 in the area where pilgrims hurl stones at piles of rocks symbolising the devil.

April 1998 - One hundred and nineteen Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death at the Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

May 2001 - In Ghana, 126 people are killed from a stampede at Accra's main soccer stadium when police fire teargas at rioting fans in one of Africa's worst soccer disasters.

February 2004 - A stampede kills 251 Muslim pilgrims in Saudi Arabia near Jamarat Bridge during the ritual stoning of the devil at the annual Haj pilgrimage.

January 2005 - At least 265 Hindu pilgrims, including several women and children, are killed near a remote temple in Maharashtra

August 2005 - At least 1,005 people die in Iraq when Shi'ites stampede off a bridge over the Tigris river in Baghdad, panicked by rumours of a suicide bomber in the crowd.

January 2006 - Three hundred and sixty-two Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death at the eastern entrance of the Jamarat Bridge when pilgrims jostled to perform the stoning ritual between noon and sunset.

February 2006 - Seventy-one people are killed at a stadium in Manila as they scrambled to get into a popular Philippine television game show.

September 2006 - At least 51 people are killed in a Yemeni stadium where President Ali Abdullah Saleh was holding a pre-election rally in the southern province of Ibb.

August 2008 - Rumours of a landslide trigger a stampede by pilgrims in India at the Naina Devi temple, in Bilaspur district, in Himachal Pradesh. At least 145 people are killed and more than 100 injured.

September 2008 - In India at least 103 people are killed and 150 injured in a stampede at the Chamunda temple, near the historic town of Jodhpur, in Rajasthan.

Stampede : 140 Killed

Monday, August 4, 2008

At least 140 people have been killed and fifty people injured in a stampede at the temple in Naina Devi, India. The incident occurred after rumors spread about a landslide on the nearby mountain. One report indicated at least 40 of the victims were children.

The chief minister of Himachal Pradesh announced that he would give compensation to the injured and the families of the dead.

50,000 people were expected to attend the temple during the day of the stampede, as part of a nine-day Shravan Navratras festival which had just started.

Rajnath Singh, the current leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in India responded to the stampede by releasing a statement in the hours after the disaster.

"I am deeply saddened to learn about the tragic death of over 100 pilgrims. I convey my deep felt condolences to the family members of all those who have lost their lives or have been injured in the incident," he said.

Meanwhile, Kumar Dhumal, the chief minister for Himachal, has announced an inquiry into the disaster.

Press reports say stampedes at temples are not rare occurrences. The Times Online says that about 80% of India's population 1.1 billion is Hindu. Temples can be a gathering place for over 100,000 people during festivals.

In July, a stampede in the eastern Puri killed six people. In March, 9 died when a railing broke in central India. In 2005, another stampede left an estimated 258 to 265 dead in the state of Maharashtra.