Hindu pilgrims arriving in Prayagraj during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival on Jan 14, 2025. Facial recognition cameras, underwater drones and robotic buoys are among the artificial intelligence-powered technologies being utilised to track the safety of nearly 450 million pilgrims, and help trace missing people, at the six-week-long religious extravaganza, Maha Kumbh Mela, that started on Jan 13. — AFP
India has deployed some of the world’s newest digital technologies to solve one of the oldest problems at the world’s largest human gathering.
Facial recognition cameras, underwater drones and robotic buoys are among the artificial intelligence-powered technologies being utilised to track the safety of nearly 450 million pilgrims, and help trace missing people, at the six-week-long religious extravaganza, Maha Kumbh Mela, that started on Jan 13.
At the mammoth festival city in Prayagraj in northern India, thousands of cameras have been installed for real-time crowd monitoring during the once-in-a-decade religious event, which attracts crowds bigger than the combined population of US and Canada.
“For the first time, we’ll use facial recognition and AI to locate lost people,” said Rajesh Dwivedi, senior superintendent of police at the Maha Kumbh, who’s overseeing technology use at the festival. “It’s not foolproof,” he said, but the goal is to have “somewhat-perfect tech”.
Lost children or seniors, and even deliberately-abandoned elderly, are a particularly distressing challenge at the gigantic, cacophonous gathering. Bollywood films have long adopted the trope of siblings separated at the Maha Kumbh who stumble upon each other years later, dramatically recognising one another by identical birthmarks, or amulets worn around the neck. For decades, the organisers relied on lost-and-found stations and public announcement systems to track missing persons, but those systems had an erratic success rate.
Artificial intelligence-powered technologies hold the promise of better outcomes, said Dwivedi, who expects the new tools to reunite more families at the Kumbh Mela – which means “festival of the sacred pitcher”. Once a relative reports a missing person at any of the designated counters at the festival site, AI tools generate digital images of the missing individuals that are then used to scan the crowds via thousands of cameras.
“Unlike at well-lit malls or train stations where facial recognition AI works well, crowds here won’t be moving in an orderly fashion,” Dwivedi said. Still, over 250 missing were reunited with their families on the first day of the gathering, local media reported.
Disaster management
Other technologies used this year to locate missing people at the Kumbh include RFID wristbands, which hold details such as emergency contacts and medical records, and a mobile app that allows people to share their live locations.
The strategically-placed, face-level cameras at the event can also help prevent stampedes, by sending real-time notifications to officials on crowd build-up and sudden mass surges. Deadly stampedes have occurred on numerous occasions: In 1954, a stampede resulted in the death of large numbers of pilgrims on the event’s main bathing day, while a 2013 stampede at a train station killed dozens.
“Data from the camera network will be processed at a control center which will send risk alerts to officials,” Dwivedi said. He declined to provide more details of the facial recognition tech, adding that the same AI tools are used to track criminals.
Apart from avoiding mishaps, AI is helping provide myriad other services at the festival, from monitoring cleanliness to assigning parking for as many as 500,000 vehicles daily. A Bengaluru-based startup Krutrim has launched an AI-powered chatbot that can respond to visitors’ questions in 11 Indian languages. AI maps by Alphabet Inc’s Google of the sprawling Prayagraj tent city show navigation routes to temporary events and emergency assistance facilities. Walmart Inc-owned PhonePe has introduced affordable insurance for travelers to cover for accidents or emergencies at under 99 rupees ($1.15).
Using digital technologies at such a large scale could come with some consequences, including an increase in cyber scams. There are also concerns that the huge amount of data collected at the event could be misused, including for unauthorised snooping.
Uttar Pradesh, the state which is hosting the religious event, is among the top 10 states with the highest malware detections, according to the latest cyber threat report by Data Security Council of India. Even before the event began, scammers had reportedly started using fake websites offering non-existent accommodation services to swindle interested participants.
To prevent devotees from succumbing to such scams, the state’s police department has launched an awareness campaign through a short film, featuring Bollywood actor Sanjay Mishra. – Bloomberg
