Organisers predict up to 400 million pilgrims will visit the Kumbh Mela, a millennia-old sacred show of Hindu piety and ritual bathing that began on January 13 and runs for six weeks
Police monitor the situation via screens at the Integrated Command and Control Center, set up to manage and control the crowd, during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj on January 17, 2025. Keen to improve India's abysmal crowd management record at large-scale religious events, organisers of the world's largest human gathering are using artificial intelligence (AI) to try to prevent stampedes.
Image: Niharika Kulkarni / AFP
Keen to improve India's abysmal crowd management record at large-scale religious events, organisers of the world's largest human gathering are using artificial intelligence to try to prevent stampedes.
Organisers predict up to 400 million pilgrims will visit the Kumbh Mela, a millennia-old sacred show of Hindu piety and ritual bathing that began on January 13 and runs for six weeks.
Deadly crowd crushes are a notorious feature of Indian religious festivals, and the Kumbh Mela, with its unfathomable throngs of devotees, has a grim track record of stampedes.
"We want everyone to go back home happily after having fulfilled their spiritual duties," Amit Kumar, a senior police officer heading tech operations in the festival, told AFP.
"AI is helping us avoid reaching that critical mass in sensitive places."