Investigating population dynamics of the Kumbh Mela through the lens of cell phone data

Jukka-Pekka Onnela; Tarun Khanna

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arXiv · 1505.06360

Investigating population dynamics of the Kumbh Mela through the lens of cell phone data

Jukka-Pekka Onnela·Tarun Khanna

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Abstract

The Kumbh is a religious Hindu festival that has been celebrated for centuries. The 2013 Kumbh Mela, a grander form of the annual Kumbh, was purportedly the largest gathering of people in human history. Many of the participants carried cell phones, making it possible for us to use a data-driven approach to document this magnificent festival. We used Call Detail Records (CDRs) from participants attending the event, a total of 390 million records, to investigate its population dynamics. We report here on some of our preliminary findings.

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Jukka-Pekka Onnela, Tarun Khanna. 2015-05-23. Investigating population dynamics of the Kumbh Mela through the lens of cell phone data. https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.06360

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