Brands rise to sustainability challenge at Maha Kumbh Mela

The Maha Kumbh Mela is not just a religious event, or a Bollywood trope (lost sibling!), or a cultural curiosity (the coverage in the media), or a logistics nightmare (Harvard University once published a detailed report on it), or a plain and simple business opportunity. It’s all of the above. 

Returning after 12 years, the Maha Kumbh Mela started on 13 January and will continue until 26 February 2025, to be attended by 400 million devotees, with an estimated financial impact of over Rs 2.5-lakh crore.  The Maha Kumbh Mela’s economic impact is second only to mega-events like weddings and Diwali in India. For example, the economic impact of Diwali is Rs 4.2-lakh crore, while the wedding season is Rs 4.2-lakh crore. The economic impact of Maha Kumbh Mela is expected to be 2.5-lakh crore.

What will be the economic impact of the 45-day mela, spread across 4,000 hectares in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, and how is India Inc making its presence felt?

Sustainability at Kumbh Mela
One area where India Inc has stepped is sustainability, according to reports, Indian companies are expected to spend Rs 5,000-crore under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

Coca-Cola initiated the ‘Maidaan Saaf’ campaign, collaborating with the PHD Rural Development Foundation (PHDRDF) and the Prayagraj Mela Authority (PMA), where the company distributed 21,500 recycled PET jackets to sanitation workers and administrative staff at the Maha Kumbh. It has also stationed hydration carts every 400-m, equipped with built-in bins for bottle collection and artwork promoting waste segregation. Coca-Cola also deployed its award-winning Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs), which collect used beverage containers and incentivise recycling via a deposit-return mechanism. These RVMs have been placed at railway stations, food courts, and key locations to collect and recycle PET waste.

Pakka’s flagship company, Chuk, has exclusively supplied bagasse-based compostable tableware to restaurants participating in government programmes, meeting the logistical challenges of serving such a massive gathering.

Tata Power has set up EV charging stations along the route at Prayagraj, Varanasi, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Lucknow and Raebareli.

Meanwhile, The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other local organisations have launched the One Plate, One Bag campaign to tackle plastic pollution. They distributed cloth bags and over two million steel plates and glasses to pilgrims and vendors.

Government initiatives
The government has also implemented several measures to ensure that sustainability measures are in place. 

The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy have introduced eco-friendly hydrogen-fuelled buses to promote sustainable public transport.

Over the last two years, the Prayagraj Municipal Corporation has created dense forests in multiple city locations using the Japanese Miyawaki technique. These efforts covered 55,800-sqm, with the largest plantation in the Naini industrial area (1.2 lakh trees of 63 species). Additionally, 27,000 trees of 27 species were planted in Baswar after clearing the city’s largest garbage dump.

IOCL Uttar Pradesh collaborated with local NGOs to carry out an environment sustainability drive — aiming to address plastic pollution, waste management, and eco-hazards, protecting ecosystems and ensuring a cleaner, greener event.

Over 25,000 artisans and labourers from states including Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh have constructed eco-friendly bamboo camps and infrastructure. 

Waste management 
The Uttar Pradesh government has allocated Rs 316-crore to make the mela area open defecation-free. Around 1.5 lakh toilets and urinals have been installed, which are monitored via a QR code-based system to ensure cleanliness. A jet spray cleaning system has replaced manual cleaning.

Last month, the Mela area was notified and divided into 25 sectors, each functioning as a city ward with its own water supply, drainage, and waste management systems.

Authorities have implemented an integrated waste treatment system using technologies developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Prefabricated faecal sludge treatment plants (FSTPs) handle waste collected in temporary septic tanks.

A 200-km temporary drainage system channels greywater to treatment facilities, supported by temporary and permanent sewage pipelines. Greywater is collected in 75 large ponds (two per sector) and treated using the bioremediation technique, while additional water treatment ponds have also been created.

For sewage treatment, hybrid granular Sequencing Batch Reactor (hgSBR) technology, developed with BARC and ISRO, is deployed at five FSTPs (three prefabricated). Geotube technology and sludge-carrying vehicles are also utilised for effective waste management.

Waste Management Facilities - At a glance

• 1,000 changing rooms constructed from recycled multi-layer plastic waste
• Changing rooms installed along 12-km of river ghats
• Hydration carts positioned at 400-m intervals, equipped with bottle collection bins
• Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) installed at railway stations and food courts