Abstract
Kumbh Mela (the festival of the sacred Pitcher) is the largest peaceful congregation of pilgrims, held in India. During this festival, participants bathe in a sacred river (UNESCO 2017). This study explores how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to focus on sites of urban regeneration for conserving cultural heritage tourism related to Kumbh Mela. This chapter focuses on the city of Ujjain (in the state of Madhya Pradesh), one of the four Indian cities that host the festival. Ujjain is considered one of the world’s oldest religious cities, with over 5000 years of history. During the last Kumbh Mela in 2016, Ujjain City registered 80 million tourist visits. This paper discusses two approaches through which Ujjain City can enhance the Kumbh experience of pilgrims while they visit and stay in the city. The first approach talks about enhancing the universal accessibility of bathing in ghat areas using GIS. Ghat areas, situated along the sacred Kshipra River, are the most important as these places experience the maximum footfall during the Kumbh Mela event. The second approach discusses how geospatial approaches can be utilized to provide safety to pilgrims, which must be considered in future development planning, as the event is prone to stampedes given the number of visitors. Approaches thus proposed in this study may be adopted by other host cities of Kumbh Mela which will ultimately help conserve heritage aspects of the event.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Access-improving the accessibility of historic buildings and places (2011) National Disability Authority. Dublin, Ireland
Ambrose I, Balmas S, Barragán I, Medina H, Orejas M (2013) Accessible route in historical cities. Maria European Foundation Centre, Brussels, Belgium, pp 1–40
Apollonio FI, Rizzo F, Bertacchi S, Dall’Osso G, Corbelli A, Grana C (2017) SACHER: smart architecture for cultural heritage in Emilia Romagna. In Italian research conference on digital libraries. Springer, Cham, pp 142–156
Bonazzoli G (1977) Prayaga and its Kumbha Mela. Parana 19(1):81–160
Brovelli MA, Hogan P, Minghini M, Zamboni G (2013) The power of Virtual Globes for valorising cultural heritage and enabling sustainable tourism: NASA World Wind applications. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 4:W2
Code of Practice-on Accessibility of Public Services and Information (2006) Public bodies—national disability authority. Dublin, Ireland
Problems And Prospects Of Accessible Tourism In India (2010) Commissioned by: Ministry of Tourism (Govt. of India), Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (An Organisation of Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India)
Dubey SK (2001) Kumbh City Prayag. Centre for Cultural Resources and Training
Hadjimitsis D, Agapiou A, Alexakis D, Sarris A (2013) Exploring natural and anthropogenic risk for cultural heritage in Cyprus using remote sensing and GIS. Int J Digit Earth 6(2):115–142
Jimura T (2019) World heritage sites tourism. Local Communities and Conservation Activities, CABI, Wallingford, UK
Lochtefeld JG (2004) The construction of the Kumbha Mela. South Asian Popul Cult 2(2):103–126
Maclean K (2009) Seeing, being seen, and not being seen: pilgrimage, tourism, and layers of looking at the Kumbh Mela. CrossCurrents 59(3):319–341
Martin EJ (1999) Improving access to heritage buildings—a practical guide to meeting the needs of people with disabilities. Australian Council of National Trusts, Canberra, Australia, pp 1–69
McKercher B, Du Cros H (2002) Cultural tourism: the partnership between tourism and cultural heritage management. Routledge, London
Merhotra R, Vera F (eds) (2015) Kumbh Mela: mapping the ephemeral megacity. Hatje Cantz
Ministry of Urban Development (2016) Harrmonised guidelines and space standards for barrier free built environment for person with disability and elderly person. Government of India, Ministry of Urban Development report
Mullick A (2011) Uniting differences—universal design for exploring the world heritage sites in India. In: Khare R, Khare A. SPA Press, Bhopal, India
Stebbins RA (1996) Cultural tourism as serious leisure. Ann Tour Res 23(4):948–950
Stefano ML, Davis P, Corsane G (eds) (2014) Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, vol 8. Boydell & Brewer Ltd., Woodbridge, UK
Timothy DJ, Nyaupane GP (eds) (2009) Cultural heritage and tourism in the developing world: a regional perspective. Routledge, New York
Ujjain Smart City Proposal (2016) Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India
UNESCO (2017) Kumbh Mela. https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/kumbh-mela-01258. Accessed 19 Sept 2019
Wise N (2016) Outlining triple bottom line contexts in urban tourism regeneration. Cities 53:30–34
Wise N, Mulec I (2015) Aesthetic awareness and spectacle: communicated images of Novi Sad (Serbia), the exit festival, and the petrovaradin fortress. Tour Rev Int 19(4):193–205
Acknowledgements
The research has been funded by ‘Universal Design Innovation for Heritage’ project under Design Innovation Centre (DIC) of School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India. DIC is funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Authors like to thank the DIC team members for collecting data at Kumbh Mela.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Saha, K., Khare, R. (2020). A Geospatial Approach to Conserving Cultural Heritage Tourism at Kumbh Mela Events in India. In: Wise, N., Jimura, T. (eds) Tourism, Cultural Heritage and Urban Regeneration. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41905-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41905-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41904-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41905-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)