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Prayagraj, 2025: The Kumbh Mela has been featured in numerous Bollywood films for people getting lost in the sea of crowd and family being separated but all this was replaced by technology during the Mahakumbh as 250 families managed to find their loved ones on the first day itself during the 2025 celebration.
Almost 1.65 crore visitors, who traveled to Triveni Sangam for the Maha Kumbh Mela to take part in the Paush Purnima bathing event, were treated to the 250 technological advancements that came their way during the celebration. Due to the large amount of attendees, some individuals got separated from their families, which is when officials stepped in to solve the issues, preventing the events from escalating.
“With the help of Mela authorities and civil defence teams many families have been brought back. Within the very first hour and a half, we managed to reunite almost 200 to 250 people to their families” stated Nitesh Kumar, warden of the Uttar Pradesh Civil Defence Department.
In order to manage crowd control during this period, the government of Uttar Pradesh introduced a large number of new measures. These included police help centres, watchtowers to oversee the area and a Bhula-Bhatka camp specifically to assist those in the south east area.
The ‘Bhula-Bhatka’ camps contain specific sections for the lost children and women and Khoya-Paya (Lost and Found) centres, all making use of technology and social networks in order to trace missing persons.
The Uttar Pradesh Police has been successful in putting up 10 state of the art digital ‘Khoya-Paya Kendras’ in various locations across Mahakumbh Nagar. These centres include waiting areas, medical assistance, and even refreshment areas meant for women and children.
ADG Bhanu Bhaskar reports, “Each of these centers has a foldable boom and can carry upto 55 led SSBs that work hand in hand with a public broadcasting system.” These SSB display the live details of missing a person or an object and alongside it the ghat details and routes.
These centres are capable of electronically documenting the details of the missing persons and objects and issuing a computer generated slip. With the objective of quick identification, the information of the missing person is flashed on the LED screens. To facilitate faster coordination, all centres are connected through separate communication networks.
To add more to it, the info is also broadcasted on Facebook, X and Whatsapp, hence enabling more people to join in the search. These centres are helping in finding missing children, mobile phones, wallets and other items of personal nature.
