Harvard to Study Kumbh Mela: World's largest Gathering

As I noted in a couple earlier blogs, Maha Kumbh Mela is a Hindu holy festival that lasts 55 days and is considered to be the largest gathering in history. Harvard University is sending teams of researchers from different faculty departments--the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Design, the Business School, the School of Public Health, the Divinity School, and the School for Global Health-- to study the different aspects of the festival that creates a temporary "pop-up mega-city."

Here's what they want to study, according to the article,  "Creating this huge encampment entails multiple aspects of contemporary urbanism, including city planning and management, engineering and spatial zoning, an electricity grid, water lines and sanitation systems, food and water distribution plans, hospitals and vaccination centres, police and fire stations, public gathering spaces, and stages for entertainments and plays, the university said."