Environmental Health Risks and Management Strategies in Kumbh Mela

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
Public Health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction:
India is one of the most populated countries in the world and is well known for its
religious as well as social massive get-to gathers. Some of the most popular religious get together
of the country includes Suraj kund Mela at the outskirts of Delhi, Ganesh Utsav in Mumbai and
Durga Puja in West Bengal. A mention worthy fact is that, all these festivals occurs in small and
overly congested land zones due to the high population of the country. Another mention worthy
celebration that is celebrated by the Hindus four times over the course of 12 years, is the kumbha
mela. The mentioned fesitival takes place at on the banks of holy rivers the Ganges (Haridwar),
the Shipra (Ujjain), the Godavari (Nashik) and the Prayag/the Sangam of divine rivers the
Ganges, the Jamuna and the mythical river Saraswati which is situated at Modern Alahhabad on
different astrologically significant dates. Pilgrims from various parts of India as well as the world
arrives in the Kumbh Mela in ord to wash off their sins in the Holy water of the Ganges (Sridhar,
Gautret & Brouqui, 2015). A huge gathering of people takes place every 12 years, and according
to the survey conducted on 2013, approximately 120 million people had gathered at the Kumbh
mela which is considered to be the largest mass gathering recorded till date (Buzinde et al.,
2014).
During the Kumb mela, due to huge gathering of people in a congested region, several
unwanted incidents that includes loss of lives, damage of property and mental agony as a result
of these issues takes place. The government of India is still struggling to find fool proof solution
to prevent such incidents in mass gathering events. The thesis statement of the report is
identification of environmental health issues in the Kumbh mela and steps that has been taken by
the government to prevent the mentioned issue. In order to evaluate the this statement, in this
report, identification, analysis as well as evolution of environmental health risks along with

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environmental health principles associated with Kumbh Mela will be performed. Along with
that, analysis of the management strategy and interdisciplinary approaches taken by the
stakeholders during the festival will be analysed in this report (Singh & Bisht, 2014).
Environmental health risks
Critical health challenges are severely imposed on the populations during the vents of mass
gatherings. The event of Maha Kumbh mela is a prolonged event taking place for more than a
period of three months. This has been declared as the on the biggest mass gathering in the world
(Cariappa et al., 2015). Such gigantic mass gatherings have been reported to impose great deal of
problems in terms of health care which include stampedes, severe physical injuries, in some
cases burns due to fire, spread of communicable diseases through exposure to unclean water, ill-
sanitation and hygienic conditions. Other implications rising out of this mass gathering include
pandemics and disasters, for which proper handling measures needs to be prepared (David &
Roy 2016).
The major health challenges which the masses gathered at the event are due to the exposure to
the unhygienic environmental factors. The gathering mostly takes place at the banks of the river
Ganges in Allahabad, which results in overcrowding of the river banks. Most of the pilgrims
gathered here follow rituals which include taking bath in the river. In the year 1954, an incident
of stampede was reported in the Kumbh mela grounds were nearly 500 individuals died as a
result of severe physical injuries after stampede. Another such incident was reported in the 2013,
where again such incident occurred in the Allahabad railway station due to overcrowding of the
pilgrims (Baranwal et al., 2015). The event of bathing in the river also leads to consequences of
water-borne infections.According to Jani et al., (2018) has been reported that on a daily basis 2.9

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billion litres of water which is untreated is dumped in the river Ganga from nearby industries and
populated areas. Therefore one environmental factor that in poses serious threat on the health of
the masses gathered is related to the supply of safe and clean water. Apart from the industrial
discharges, everyday huge amounts of materials used for the rituals like candles, flowers and
others are thrown in to then water of the river, which in turn degrades the quality of the river
water. Earlier incidents are reported of cholera outbreak in the Kumbh mela grounds due to
spread of such infections. Challenges on health due to environmental factors also include the
public health and sanitation factor. The main problems associated with poorsanitation are that
people gathered in such events do not use proper toilets, instead defecate in the open space, the
process of manual scavenging also imposes threat since many sweepers in these process collect
the diseases while sweeping the feces. Other problems include lack of network for public health,
which increase the disease burden. Open defecation leads to mosquitoes breeding in such areas
accompanied by growth of pathogen cultures in such areas which become the reservoir of the
diseases (Singh&Bisht2014). The environmental aspects which degrades the quality of health in
the population gathered in the Kumbh mela also include factors such as solid waste management
and air pollution. The issues related to solid waste management are throwing of trash in the open
which attracts rodents who become the infection reservoirs, non-biodegradable components can
lead to more waste accumulation which in turn enhance the process of leaching. In the event of
Maha Kumbh mela there is a heightened risk of air pollution, since it has been observed that
most of the pilgrims who gather there are involved in smoking. The smoke from the choolahs,
which is used for cooking during the mela days also adds up to the air pollutions. It had been
reported that 15000 patients have been suffering from respiratory problems as a result of the
diminishing air quality around the mela premises (Greenough2013). This were some of the