Murphy’s Law seemed to be in full force in 2025. It was a year defined by an unsettling sense that just as one crisis faded, another emerged—often more severe, and sometimes stretching on for months. Rather than moving neatly from headline to headline, the year felt like a series of sudden shocks, each jolt leaving little time to recover before the next arrived.
It was not a year without achievement. India recorded moments of pride in sports, science, governance and economic reform. Yet these highs unfolded against a grim backdrop of stampedes, terror attacks, transport disasters and climate-driven catastrophes, both at home and abroad.
The year opened on a tragic note on January 22, when panic over a rumoured fire on the Lucknow–Mumbai Pushpak Express led to a deadly chain of events in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district. An unscheduled halt and passengers jumping onto the tracks resulted in 12 deaths as an oncoming train struck them.
Barely a week later, on January 29, the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj witnessed a devastating stampede near the Sangam area in the early hours of the morning. Tens of millions had gathered for the holy dip, and the sudden crush claimed nearly 30 lives, with many more injured.
February brought another crowd tragedy. On February 15, chaos erupted at New Delhi Railway Station as thousands waited to board delayed trains to Prayagraj. Overcrowded platforms turned deadly within minutes, killing at least 18 people, most of them women and children.
Natural disasters followed. On March 28, a powerful earthquake struck Myanmar and Thailand, killing over a thousand people and flattening infrastructure, while complicating rescue efforts in conflict-hit regions. Days later, on April 1, an explosion at a firecracker factory in Gujarat’s Deesa killed 21 people, many of them migrant workers and children, once again exposing the human cost of unsafe labour practices.
The deadliest terror strike of the year came on April 22 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, where gunmen opened fire on tourists, killing 26 people. The attack triggered diplomatic fallout and a military response in the form of Operation Sindoor in early May.
June proved equally grim. On June 4, celebrations of a long-awaited IPL victory in Bengaluru turned tragic when a stampede near a stadium killed 11 fans. Just days later, on June 12, an Air India Dreamliner crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people, including passengers and those on the ground, leaving only one survivor.
Extreme weather dominated the second half of the year. Flash floods in Texas in July killed more than 135 people. From August to September, an erratic monsoon battered the Indian subcontinent, causing floods, landslides and cloudbursts across Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu, displacing millions and destroying livelihoods.
Crowd disasters resurfaced on September 27, when a political rally in Tamil Nadu’s Karur district descended into chaos, killing 39 people. In October, Hurricane Melissa devastated parts of the Caribbean as a Category 5 storm, causing billions of dollars in losses and long-term displacement.
November brought fresh shocks: an earthquake in northern Afghanistan killed dozens, while a car bomb blast near Delhi’s Red Fort killed 15 people and triggered a nationwide security alert. Toward the end of the year, Cyclone Ditwah caused catastrophic flooding in Sri Lanka and southern India, overwhelming healthcare systems.
December offered no respite. A mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach during a public gathering left 16 dead. Closer home, an operational collapse at a major Indian airline caused nationwide travel chaos, followed by a deadly nightclub fire in Goa that exposed deep regulatory failures.
Through it all, 2025 tested institutions, infrastructure and public trust. Each tragedy forced uncomfortable questions about preparedness, accountability and governance. Yet many also prompted reforms, tighter safety norms and moments of solidarity, as communities stepped up in times of crisis.
As the year drew to a close, the grief it left behind was undeniable. So too was the resilience it forged. If 2025 was a reminder of how fragile life and systems can be, it was also a call to build better—guided by memory, empathy and caution.
