One of the biggest festivals involving human congregation, the mega Kumbh Mela, is scheduled to be held in March 2021. The mammoth religious-cum-tourism event is going to be held after a gap of 11 years in Hardiwar, and will begin on March 12 with the Shahi Snan.
Though Uttarakhand has lifted most of its travel restrictions, the entire process and scale of the event remains uncertain as the number of cases continues to soar. Hence, the administration is in a bit of a fix about how to determine the scale at which the congregation will be organised. The previous Kumbh Mela, held in 2010, saw a footfall of more than 1.5 crore devotees and visitors. This time the state government is planning measures to put a limit on the number of devotees by issuing limited passes and maintaining social distancing measures.
The event will quite possibly have be heavily curbed keeping in view the pandemic backdrop, though no one knows yet how things will look in March 2021.
Or perhaps the event could be postponed/cancelled, much like the many big-crowd events across the world (Rio's carnival and Spain's La Tomatina festival).