India uses AI to stop stampedes at world's biggest gathering

Efforts are underway to improve India's poor crowd management record at large-scale religious events, with organizers of the Kumbh Mela leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent stampedes. The Kumbh Mela, recognized as the world's largest human gathering, is expected to draw up to 400 million pilgrims over its six-week duration, which began Monday.

Deadly stampedes have historically marred Indian religious festivals, and the Kumbh Mela has been no exception. In 1954, over 400 people lost their lives in a single day at the festival, making it one of the deadliest crowd disasters globally. More recently, in 2013, a stampede claimed 36 lives during the event in Prayagraj.

To address these risks, authorities have turned to technology to manage the massive crowds. Amit Kumar, a senior police officer heading the festival's tech operations, highlighted the importance of AI in preventing dangerous crowd congestion. “We want everyone to go back home happily after having fulfilled their spiritual duties,” Kumar told AFP. “AI is helping us avoid reaching that critical mass in sensitive places.”

This year’s event features around 300 cameras mounted on poles and drones throughout the festival site and surrounding areas. The footage is fed into a command and control room equipped with AI algorithms to estimate crowd sizes and monitor density. The system triggers alerts when crowd density exceeds safe levels, allowing authorities to intervene before the situation becomes critical. "We are using AI to track people flow, crowd density at various inlets, adding them up and then interpolating from there," Kumar explained.

The Kumbh Mela, rooted in Hindu mythology about a battle between deities and demons over a pitcher of nectar granting immortality, is being held on an unprecedented scale this year. Organizers anticipate attendance to rival the combined populations of the United States and Canada. On the festival's first morning alone, an estimated six million devotees took a ritual dip in the sacred rivers.

With a crowd of this magnitude, some degree of congestion is unavoidable, said Kumar. He noted that the critical threshold for crowd density in India is higher than in Western countries due to cultural differences. While Western standards allow for three people per square foot, the Kumbh Mela can safely accommodate a much higher density.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath described the event as a unique blend of tradition and modernity. “The fact that there are cameras and drones makes us feel safe,” said Harshit Joshi, a 28-year-old automotive engineer and one of millions of pilgrims at the festival.

The integration of AI and surveillance technology underscores the evolving approach to managing large-scale gatherings in India, aiming to ensure the safety of millions while preserving the spiritual essence of the event.