I read with interest the media coverage and Government reports/ads about the Ganga Sagar mela this year. Considering how scanty the available information and body of first-hand travel anecdote is about this mega event, I felt this might be useful for future travelers. The 125 km journey from Kolkata, quite unbelievably, can take up to 12 hours including holdup time at various stages. It is also one of the more inaccessible venues among important pilgrimages. This year, it was sort of record attendance at the one-day event at the spot where the Ganga flows into the sea. Estimated 1.5 million pilgrims visited to take the holy bath and offer prayers at the Kapil Muni temple. The absence of Kumbh Mela this year swelled the crowd count, and demonetization clearly did not have any effect. Sadly, 6 people are being reported killed in stampede today (Jan 15) at the Kachuberia Jetty No. 5 and several more injured. I have observed that chances of stampede is higher at the return journey, since the return crowd builds up in thousands every 15 minutes at the ferry ghat; patience runs thin after the arduous journey to the place; queue runs in to several hours due to lack of adequate ferry service, and the fear of getting stuck for even longer hours during low tide when ferries do not ply (don't ask why, after Rs. 100 million is spent on desilting the ferry route just for this event).
Here is a presentation of how the event looked this year, through the prism of vernacular newspapers. The national dailies normally do not pay attention to such "unsecular" events. However, the stampede this year made it "newsworthy", quite tragically.
