On the auspicious occasion of Eid, a huge crowd of pilgrims (devotees) gathered at the Dargah of Qalandar Haji Malang Baba located in Thane district of Maharashtra. Due to the enthusiasm of the festival and deep faith in Baba, thousands of people from Mumbai, Thane and surrounding areas came together for Ziyarat.
Due to this unexpected crowd, there was so much pressure on the Funicular Trolley service leading to the Dargah located on the hill that the system completely broke down. The video of the chaos at the trolley station is now going viral on social media.
No room to step at trolley station
Crowd gathered at Haji Malang Dargah! There was chaos at the trolley station due to huge crowd on the occasion of Eid. This video of the heavy pushing and shoving at the gate is scary for the unsuspecting people who were stuck for hours. #HajiMalang #HajiMalangDargah #Eid #ViralVideo #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/B3AMj96zgC
— kishan kumar (@kishanbjmc) March 22, 2026
This historical Dargah of Haji Malang Baba is situated on an inaccessible hill (Malang Garh) in Kalyan at an altitude of about 790 meters above sea level. In the video going viral, it can be clearly seen that the trolley station and its waiting area are jam-packed with people and there is no space left to even step foot.
On normal days, the trolley service is a convenient means of climbing the hill for the elderly, children and women, but on the day of Eid, due to the arrival of many times more people than the capacity, there was a waiting time of hours here. The pressure of the crowd was so much that many times a situation like pushing and shoving occurred at the station.
Hours of waiting and compulsion to climb on foot
Due to the limited capacity of the trolley and the crowd of thousands, the pilgrims had to face a lot of trouble. To get their turn, people had to stand in queues for hours in the scorching heat and humidity. When the wait became unbearable, hundreds of devotees abandoned the trolley and chose the difficult option of climbing this inaccessible and high hill on foot. Due to heavy crowd even on the footpath, people took double the time than usual to climb the route.
security personnel sweat
Controlling the pilgrims who arrived together in such a large number became a big challenge for the local administration and the Dargah management. The policemen, security forces and private guards deployed there had to work hard to handle the situation and avert any untoward incident. The security personnel tried to stop and queue the crowd through barricades.
After this viral video surfaced, people on social media are demanding better ‘crowd management’ and increasing emergency facilities at pilgrimage sites during such big festivals, so that any major accident can be avoided in future.