Planning for sustainable religious tourism

Abstract

Religion is often defined as people' relationship with what they consider to be sacred, usually in supernatural terms. Nine of the world's most popular faiths are followed by billions of people across the world. Among them are 750 million Hindus, 10 million Jains, 700 million Buddhists, 12.5 million Jews, less than two billion Christians, 1.4 billion Muslims, 16 million Sikhs, and five million Baha'is. Religious gatherings attract a significantly larger crowd than entertainment and political gatherings. Religious mass gathering in India is quite significant. A religious mass gathering is often a planned event or occasion associated with a particular religion or spiritual belief. It may take place on a certain day or over a period. Durga Puja, Ganesh Chaturthi, Kumbh Mela, Magh Mela, and other religious mass gathering festivals are prevalent in India, necessitating the proper development of temporary towns to accommodate the people. The Ganga is revered by Hindus over its whole length and serves as a lifeline for millions of people who live along its banks. It runs through one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj, where it joins its greatest tributary, the Yamuna. The Hindu festival "Magh Mela" is held near the confluence of both rivers, when thousands of visitors wash in the Ganga. Pilgrims think that by doing so, they will be cleansed of their sins. This event's distinguishing characteristic is a tremendous flow of people, necessitating the deployment of a temporary metropolis. The pilgrims' festival creates landscapes that are always changing in terms of celebration, agriculture, flood, and preparation. At Prayagraj, the dynamic floodplains of the sacred river Ganga provide a number of issues. The site also aspires to provide opportunities for local and seasonal workers to interact with the holy river Ganga's dynamic, ever-changing floodplain landscape at Prayagraj. The mass bathing beside the river has a significant impact on the river's health in terms of water pollution, as well as the garbage generated by rituals and other social activities.