India readies for mammoth festival of 400 million pilgrims

AFP | New Delhi

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The world’s largest gathering of humanity begins in India on Monday with the opening of the Kumbh Mela, a six-week festival organisers expect to attract up to 400 million pilgrims.

“Some 350 to 400 million devotees are going to visit the mela, so you can imagine the scale of preparations,” festival spokesman Vivek Chaturvedi said. The last celebration at the site, the “ardh” or half Kumbh Mela in 2019, attracted 240 million pilgrims, according to India’s government.

That compares to an estimated 1.8 million who take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.