The world’s largest religious gathering, the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India, turned deadly Wednesday, with officials confirming at least 30 deaths and 60 people injured in a stampede on the biggest day of the festival. 

Some 100 million people were expected to converge on one of the holiest spots for Hindu devotees, on the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. 

This is not the first time a large religious gathering in the country has led to tragedy. 

Here’s a closer look at the festival.  

What is the Kumbh Mela? 

India’s Maha — or grand — Kumbh Mela is the largest religious gathering in the world. It is often referred to as the “festival of festivals” and a major event in the Hindu calendar. 

The ceremony is centuries old and is based on a tale in Hindu mythology where gods and demons fought over a pitcher, or kumbh, that contained the nectar of immortality. 

It attracts hundreds of millions of devotees, holy men, tourists and politicians, converging on the banks of the holiest rivers in Hinduism to bathe in waters that are considered sacred. A dip in the water is a means, for devout Hindus, to cleanse their sins. 

The Kumbh Mela pilgrimage happens every three years, but a Maha Kumbh occurs every 12 years in Pragyaraj — a city in India’s Uttar Pradesh state considered especially holy because the Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet there. It is also the end point for the mythical Saraswati river, as described in ancient scriptures. 

WATCH | Hindu festival draws millions to northern India:

Millions gather in northern India for massive 6-week Hindu festival

Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, is held every 12 years in the northern city of Prayagraj, as Hindus believe bathing in sacred rivers brings salvation from the cycle of birth and death, and the absolution of sins.

This year’s event is considered even more auspicious because of a special celestial alignment of the sun, the moon and Jupiter that only happens every 144 years. 

For many Hindus, like 27-year old Rahul Singh, this year’s Maha Kumbh was not to be missed. 

“My heart feels so happy to be here,” Singh told CBC News earlier this week, before Wednesday’s stampede. 

“I’ll never forget this day for the rest of my life,” said Singh, who drove 15 hours from his town more than 900 kilometres away to attend the festival for the first time. 

Authorities have been predicting this year’s Maha Kumbh would shatter previous attendance records. 

How big is it really? 

The scale of the Kumbh Mela is staggering. 

India’s government has repeatedly said it’s expecting 400 million visitors this year — more than the population of the United States — over the 45 days of the festival that began Jan. 13. 

The Kumbh Mela’s hundreds of millions of attendees dwarf other religious gatherings, with the last one in 2019 attracting about 240 million people. Last year’s Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca drew 1.8 million people. 

Officials in Prayagraj have set up 150,000 porta-potties and 175,000 tents as far as the eye can see, with 10,200 sanitation workers patrolling an area that covers the equivalent of 7,500 football fields. 

Some 50,000 police officers and guards have been deployed. 

The Maha Kumbh is so massive it can be seen from space, a fact driven home this week when American astronaut Don Pettit, who is on an extended stay at the International Space Station, posted photos to social media platform X, with the caption: “the largest human gathering in the world is well lit.” 

The Uttar Pradesh state government has spent $1.1 billion Cdn on setting up infrastructure surrounding the massive event and on technology focused on security and crowd management, branding this the first “Digital Maha Kumbh.”

That technology included 2,750 CCTV cameras powered by artificial intelligence to analyze video footage, calculate crowd size and alert officers when there’s a surge of people in one section of the festival grounds.

What led to Wednesday’s deadly crush?

Wednesday was the most auspicious day of the six-week religious gathering, the biggest shahi snan — or holy bathing day — when devotees, led by Hindu holy men called naga sadhus, immerse themselves in the waters in the belief that it will cleanse their sins and purify their souls. 

Government authorities had estimated some 100 million people would attend on Wednesday. Earlier reports coming out of the area indicated that many of the bridges built around the rivers were very congested and police were using loudspeakers to direct pilgrims to shorten their time in the water. 

In the early hours of the morning on Wednesday, millions of pilgrims converged on the riverbank, with many sleeping near the ghats, or sacred steps leading down to Ganges, to reserve a prime spot. 

WATCH | Several people killed in stampede at religious gathering:

Over 2 dozen killed in stampede at Hindu festival in northern India

Indian officials say at least 30 people were killed and 60 were injured in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh festival after a huge crowd broke through barriers and trampled people waiting to bathe in India’s holy rivers.

Witnesses described how the crowds suddenly surged from multiple directions, with many pushing and shoving and trampling over others who had fallen. 

Others said they saw barricades being pushed over. One devotee, Renu Devi, told the AFP news agency that she was sitting near a barricade when a massive crowd came towards her. 

“In the midst of the pushing and shoving, the entire crowd fell on top of me, trampling me as it moved forward,” the 48-year old said. “When the crowd surged, elderly people and women were crushed, and no one came forward to help.”

Officials said some tried to climb over police barricades set up to manage the crowd in order to get closer to the water. 

What are government officials saying about the stampede? 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to acknowledge there were fatalities, when he offered condolences on social media to the families who lost loved ones, calling the tragedy “extremely sad.”

But that came 10 hours after the crowd surge trampled dozens of people, and it was many more hours before officials confirmed a death toll. 

The Hindu gathering is important to the Indian government and has acquired a more political bent in the years since Modi and his Hindu nationalist party were first elected, with more large-scale promotion of the Kumbh Mela the new norm. 

State officials said there would be an investigation into what happened and compensation for victims’ families. 

How common are stampedes at India’s religious festivals? 

It’s not an unusual occurrence for large religious gatherings to end in deaths in India. The last major Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013 saw 42 people killed after they arrived at the main train station, also on the most auspicious and biggest day of the festival that year. 

In 1954, tragedy also struck at the Kumbh Mela in what was one of India’s deadliest stampedes, with at least 300 people dead and more than 1,000 injured. 

More recently, in July 2024, 121 people were killed and scores more injured after in a crowd crush at a Hindu religious gathering in Hathras, which is also in Uttar Pradesh. The victims were mostly women and children.