Eastern Railway provides round-the-clock medical care to 20 lakh Shravani Mela pilgrims

Nearly two million pilgrims have moved through Eastern Railway stations on their way to Baba Baidyanath Dham in Deoghar since the Shravani Mela began—a sacred journey to one of Hinduism's most revered sites. By mid-August, the railway's medical teams had already treated hundreds of devotees for injuries and illnesses that the pilgrimage itself inflicts: feet torn open by miles of barefoot walking, bodies depleted by heat and dehydration, minds clouded by exhaustion.

The Eastern Railway did not treat this as a logistics problem. Instead, leadership issued explicit instructions to keep medical staff alert around the clock at Jasidih and Deoghar stations. General Manager Gitika Pandey and Divisional Railway Manager Sangrah Maurya made clear that pilgrim welfare was not incidental to the railway's mission—it was central to it. The medical teams responded by setting up first-aid booths and health units designed not just to patch people up, but to prevent the complications that might follow them home.

The work itself was unglamorous and precise. At the Deoghar First Aid Booth, medical staff treated devotees whose feet had blistered so severely that the skin had ruptured, exposing raw tissue underneath. The team cleaned each wound thoroughly, irrigated it with sterile solution, dressed it with non-adherent padding to prevent further damage, and administered pain relief. They assessed whether tetanus protection was needed and gave clear instructions for healing. This was not emergency room medicine—it was the kind of careful, methodical care that prevents infection and allows people to walk again.

At Jasidih station, a pilgrim arrived disoriented and dangerously dehydrated from heat exhaustion. Railway staff moved him into a wheelchair and brought him to the health unit, where doctors stabilized him with oral rehydration solution and close monitoring. Within hours, his alertness returned. The railway then reunited him with his family, and he was able to continue his journey home.

Beyond the medical booths, the railway created infrastructure designed around the reality of mass pilgrimage. Holding areas prevented dangerous crowding on platforms. Rest zones offered mobile charging and drinking water. Toilets were available. CCTV cameras watched over the stations continuously. Medical staff moved through the crowds, watching for signs of distress. The approach treated pilgrims not as a surge to be managed, but as people whose bodies and minds needed care.

Nataraj Basappa, the railway's principal chief medical director, visited the stations repeatedly to review conditions and speak directly with patients and staff. He was not overseeing from an office—he was present, assessing readiness, understanding what was working and what was not. This kind of attention matters. It signals that the organization takes the work seriously, and it allows problems to be caught and fixed quickly.

The railway's reasoning was clear: medical intervention during the pilgrimage prevents worse problems later. A foot infection that starts at the station can become serious by the time a devotee reaches home. Heat exhaustion that goes untreated can cause lasting damage. The railway's job, as its communications officer Shibram Majhi put it, extends beyond simply moving people from one place to another. It includes standing beside them when their bodies fail, offering a hand when they stumble, and ensuring they can return to their lives whole.