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Over a million take dip in Ganga
on Kartik Purnima

Over a million Hindu devotees on Tuesday took a holy dip in the river Ganga in Bihar on the occasion of Kartik Purnima, regarded as one of the holiest days.

The occasion attracts hundreds of thousands of devotees to the riverbanks of the Ganga for a holy dip. Most of them hail from rural areas in Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

Over half a million devotees had converged at the confluence of the Ganga and Gandak rivers at Sonepur. On the occasion, a cattle fair is also organised in the town, which is about 40 km from Patna.

Believed to be Asia's largest cattle fair, the Sonepur mela commenced at the Harihar Kshetra grounds on Monday with over 50,000 cattle heads, including elephants, camels, cows, bulls and horses, for sale.

The fair is spread over an area of nearly 200 acres. Hundreds of devotees from neighbouring Nepal also head for Sonepur at this time.

Patna District Magistrate Deepak Prasad said the administration had made all possible arrangements for the benefit of devotees and also deployed adequate security forces to check any untoward incident.

The administration had also motorboats with divers for emergency situations, he said.

However, unlike during the Chhath festival (worshipping the Sun god), which occurred a week ago in Patna, dirty banks welcomed the devotees.

During the Chhath festival, the banks of the Ganges were cleaned and made spic and span by the joint efforts of government agencies, NGOs and the people.

More reports from Bihar

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