Kumbh Mela - The Price Of Optimism

As the day of the last shahi snan (royal bath) of the Haridwar Mahakumbh Mela approaches on April 27, the crowds in Haridwar have thinned quite dramatically.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

Following the surge in Covid-19 cases, several akhadas (congregations) of seers have departed the festival grounds. For instance, of the 13 Bairagi akhadas—for whom the last shahi snan day is considered most significant—only six remain on site.

By April 18, about 80 seers at various ashrams had tested positive for Covid-19. On April 14, Swami Kapil Dev, the mahamandaleshwar of Madhya Pradesh’s Maha Nirvani Akhada, succumbed to Covid-19. Mahant Narendra Giri, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad, has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Rishikesh. VHP working president Alok Kumar has also tested positive. Between the Maha Shivratri snan on March 11 and April 20, 8,251 people had tested positive for the coronavirus in Haridwar.

While the state had earlier announced that it was mandatory for devotees to have negative RT-PCR reports and medical certificates to get e-passes to enter the Haridwar Mela grounds, this was an order more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Top officials in the Uttarakhand government claim more than 4,000 vehicles, with occupants found to be Covid-positive, were turned back at state border points or from entering Haridwar between April 1 and 10. The 8,000+ people who had tested positive in Haridwar up to April 20 suggest a different reality, as do the 31,516 new cases across the state. The big spikes in Covid+ve numbers have occurred as the month’s second shahi snan on April 12 drew near—about 5,500 of Haridwar’s cases were recorded after April 10, and about 24,000 of the state’s overall Covid surge. On April 12 and 14, the second and third of the four