400m Head for Hindu Festival

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

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Organisers say the scale of preparations for the Kumbh Mela is akin to setting up a temporary country from scratch - in this case, one more populous than the US and Canada combined.

"About 350 to 400 million devotees are going to visit the mela, so you can imagine the scale of preparations," festival spokesperson Vivek Chaturvedi said.

Around 150,000 toilets have been built and a network of community kitchens can each feed up to 50,000 people at the same time. Another 68,000 LED light poles have been erected for a gathering so large that its bright lights can be seen from space.