About Mandherdevi Temple :



Kalubai Mandhar Temple is located at Mandradev in Satara District in Maharashtra and is dedicated to Kaleshwari Devi. On the full moon day in Paush month (January – February), a major festival takes place here and is attended by thousands of devotees. Kaleshwari Devi is an incarnation of Goddess Shakti and is a hugely popular deity in this region of Maharashtra. In 2009, Kalubai Mandhar Temple Paush Purnima Festival is on January 10 and 11th.

Kalubai Mandhar Temple is located atop a mountain – 1200 m high.

On Paush Purnima more than 200,000 people gather at the temple. Devotees offer green colored saree to Kaleshwari Devi on the day.

Kalubai Mandhar Temple is about 18 km from Wai and 120 km south of Mumbai.

Mandhardev is one of the challenging AADM sevas starting on 9th Jan and will extend till 12th Jan 2009. DMVs across state are participating in this seva. From Mumbai as usual 100 DMVs are participating where as from Pune around 60, Nashik region 50 and Konkan region 50 DMVs are participating.

Organizing committee member Arvindsinh Natu along with Steering Committee members Harinakshasinh Shetty and Kishorsinh Narvekar are coordinating seva this year.

In the space of a couple of hours an estimated 300 people died and property worth lakhs was burnt. Instead of a line of enthusiastic devotees winding their way up the hill, all that was visible was a giant head of fire. Rescue teams that arrived from Pune, 200 km away, could see the fire from miles afar but it took them four hours to negotiate the 12-km ghat road to reach the site atop a 1,200-metre-high hill. There they were faced with treacherously slippery steps, burning stalls, mangled bodies and the prospect of an occasional gas cylinder bursting.

Doctors at the rural and mission hospitals in Wai said that judging by the expression on the faces of most of the dead persons, death seemed to have been instantaneous. It was an important indicator for the investigators as it showed the rapidity with which things happened.

From the death toll to the possible cause, came under dispute. The authorities say 251 people died - 157 women, 88 men, five boys and a girl - while the local people say the toll is much higher and that the bereaved took away bodies to avoid paperwork with the authorities.

Disaster in front of an EYE WITNESS :à Eyewitness accounts of the tragedy vary. The most plausible sequence of events suggests that some devotees slipped on a mix of water from broken coconuts and blood from sacrificed goats, and that triggered panic and a stampede. Packed beyond capacity in a compound, people struggled to find a way out and surged towards the two openings of the compound, one of which had been earmarked for entry and the other for exit. The 30 or so policemen on duty inside were powerless to do anything.

Haribhau Shinde, was witness to the Kalubai temple stampede in which over 300 people are being feared crushed to death.

He had set up his prasad stall as usual on the slope that leads to the temple on the top of a hillock. But around 1 pm, there was a commotion. He looked up to see there was chaos on the slope that led out of the temple, barricaded with bamboo poles on two sides. In 10 minutes, it was over. Then we only saw dead bodies. There were so many. I frantically searched for my brother and sister-in-law. My brother was lying unconscious. We brought him to the hospital.

After the stampede, some people lost their cool and set shops on fire, he added. Most of the shops on the temple ground and the approach road were burnt and razed. Slow smoke rises from them even 36 hours later.