The Indian police are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help reunite lost families in the ongoing MahaKumbh pilgrimage in Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh state where over 400 million devotees are expected to attend. The duodecennial festival of India has been branded as “Digital MahaKumbh” for its extensive use of artificial intelligence and virtual reality by the government.
During the event, the government and the UP police are using AI software for facial recognition and analysis.
According to a report in NDTV, many families that were lost in the mammoth crowd during the festival were assisted by the police to reunite with their loved ones using AI technology for detection. In a recent incident, Sarita Singh was separated from her son and mother-in-law. The UP Police utilized advanced AI-powered facial recognition technology to locate them.
They processed her son’s photograph through their software, and one of the 2,760 CCTV cameras monitoring the festival area in Prayagraj, it captured an image of him standing near a tea shop with his grandmother. This allowed the police to reunite the family within a couple of hours.
According to reports from NDTV, Sarita’s experience is just one of many events that demonstrate on how technology is helping authorities to better manage MahaKumbh 2025. Police officers responsible for crowd management reported that they are using AI-based software to monitor the number of people present and to prevent incidents of family separations, which have occurred during previous Hindu festival.
Amit Kumar, a senior police officer said, “The crowd is calculated using different methods, aided by AI, which plays a crucial role like telling us when the crowd surges.”
According to police, the AI-generated computer software running the cameras will also alert authorities when it will detect any problem in any one section of the festival like a fire, or if people cross the walls they are not supposed to.
The alerts are relayed to personnel on the ground to take corrective action. Rajesh Dwivedi a local police chief said, “With these markers, we are monitoring the crowd round the clock with the help of over 500 people at the control center.”
He further added, “As for finding lost visitors, the technology will work only if the missing person has been captured on the crowd monitoring cameras”.
As the MahaKumbh Mela 2025 has begun from January 13, 2025, it is anticipated that over 400 million people will visit Prayagraj over the next 45 days.
Also Read: How India uses AI to manage 450 million devotees in MahaKumbh
