look news india
Haridwar, August 2 (HS). There was a record number of Shiva devotees visiting Haridwar for the Kavad fair of Shravan month of Samvat 2081. The district administration has claimed that 4 crore 14 lakh 40 thousand Kavadis collected water from Haridwar.
After the completion of the Kanwar Mela of the month of Shravan which started from 22nd July and continued till 2nd August, the Superintendent of Police Office released various figures. According to which, in the 12 days of the Kanwar Mela, 4 crore 14 lakh 40 thousand Kanwariyas from various states of the country reached Haridwar and from here, after filling Gangajal, left for their respective destinations.
During the fair, 221 incidents of Kanwariyas drowning in the Ganga took place, out of which the swimmers and divers of SDRF, Jal Police, PAC and BEG (Army) saved the lives of 214 people by rescuing them safely. Five Kanwariyas died due to drowning and two are still missing. During this period, 10 Kanwariyas died in road and other accidents.
If we compare the figures of the years after the Kanwar fair of Shravan month held in 2015, the number of devotees is increasing continuously except for 2019. This number has been a record in 2024. In 2015, 1 crore 95 lakh Shiva devotees came to Haridwar for the Kanwar fair. In 2016, this number increased to 2 crore 20 lakh, in 2017 to 3 crore 70 lakh and in 2018 to 3 crore 77 lakh. In 2019, there was a slight decrease in it and this number remained at 3 crore 30 lakh. In 2020 and 2021, the Kanwar fair remained banned due to Corona. After this, in 2022, it again increased to 3 crore 79 lakh and in 2023 this number increased to 4 crore 7 lakh. In view of this, the officials looking after the arrangements of the Kanwar fair had estimated that this number would cross 5 crore. Although the Sawan Shivratri and its fair have ended today, the process of taking water from Haridwar continues throughout the month of Sawan.
