All that 60-year-old Basanti could tell after getting lost at Gangasagar mela was that she had come to the carnival with her brother Suresh and 26 other people from Agra in Uttar Pradesh.
In the teeming crowds that flock the Sagar Islands in the remote Sunderbans on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, Basanti’s case is not an isolated one. In fact, those who get lost in the carnival happen to be the elderly and women with young children hailing from remote villages.
In this year alone, there have been 64 cases of pilgrims who were separated from their families and could not be reunited. However, 2,000 others who were lost at the carnival were able to find their friends and families with the help of the government and voluntary organisations.
“I have come from Balasore [Odisha] with my husband Kartik Pradhan,” a distraught Mangali Pradhan told The Hindu . Since she was unable to give many details about those who had accompanied her, the organisers asked her to make an announcement to attract the attention of her family members.
Often the mela is considered a convenient place to get rid of the elderly and the ailing, who have become a burden to their family. Helpless, bewildered people, wandering around without knowing who to turn to, is a common sight here.
Those who get lost are taken to the camp of the Bajrang Parishad, a non-government organisation which works with the district administration to help lost people get back to their families.
“We have been successful in reuniting most of the people. The 64 pilgrims who are still missing are being brought to Kolkata and from here we will try to reunite them with their families,” Prem Nath Dubey, secretary of Bajrang Parishad told The Hindu . Bamkim Chandra Hazra, the Trinamool Congress MLA from Sagar Island lauded the efforts of Bajrang Parishad and said but for the NGO, those who go missing would be left to wander on the island.
