The Indian government said about 100 million to 150 million people, including one million foreign tourists, are expected to attend the Kumbh Mela festival over an eight-week period beginning on Tuesday,
Jan. 15.
The scale of the efforts to feed and house the pilgrims is immense. Organisers were erecting temporary bridges, 600 mass kitchens, more than 100,000 portable toilets, and vast tents, each sleeping thousands of pilgrims at a time, in a pop-up city on the banks of the two rivers.
The Kumbh Mela – directly translates as “pot festival” – is traditionally held every three years in one of four cities along India’s sacred rivers, with one of the largest of those in Prayagraj. (Reuters).
