Petition filed in the Calcutta HC demanding the termination of the Gangasagar Mela

On Monday, a petition was filed in the Calcutta High Court, asking for the cancellation of this year's Gangasagar Mela in Bengal, citing an increase in Covid-19 incidents.

It was stated by a doctor, the petitioner that the virus may spread further because about 30 lakh pilgrims visit Sagar Island every year for the religious festival.

He begged that the Gangasagar Mela be postponed for this year because the number of Covid-19 cases in the state has been on the rise. According to the petitioner's counsel, the case might be heard by a division bench led by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava.

Dr. Abhinandan Mondal, the petitioner, and a medical practitioner have voiced grave concern about the possibility of an estimated 30 lakh pilgrims converging at the Mela field and having a holy bath at the Sagar Island confluence on and around the important Makar Sankranti on January 14.

The Mela is set to take place from January 8 to 16, and the Bengal government has already put in place a massive system to welcome and handle the thousands of devotees expecting to arrive from all across the nation.

According to the most recent estimates, West Bengal is presently documenting upwards of 6,000 new Covid-19 infections every day, a massive increase from just a week ago, with a shocking positive rate of over 16% despite low testing numbers.

“Given the spurt of infection, the fair almost certainly would pose a major public health crisis against which the state has already sounded its alarm bell. We are most concerned about the holy bath during the Mela which would be a sure shot recipe for the spread of the disease. Even if 10 percent of the pilgrims get the virus, the number would be as high as 3 lakh from a single fair,” advocate for the petitioner, Suryaneel Das said.

“Even if there are measures to test the pilgrims at the fairground, there is no way to monitor their health from the point of origin of their journey till they reach Gangasagar. The sheer number of people who are expected to arrive could mean that the infection would spread beyond all manageable proportions even before they reach the fairground,” Das further added.