nashik the city police are planning to explore the possibility of creating a virtual simulation of the forthcoming kumbh mela in a bid to improve security measures for better crowd control which would help in further reducing the possibility of a stampede police commissioner kulwant kumar sarangal said that in the next meeting with the district collectorate he would share the idea with the planning commission at a programme held recently at the maharashtra university of health sciences muhs the commissioner had interacted with experts in crowd management from where the idea of creating a virtual simulation stemmed the experts in crowd management who were present at the meeting stressed on how more emphasis needed to be laid on prevention rather than planning for curative measures post an accident or a calamity which in either case were always put in place sources from the muhs said the meeting revolved around crowd management and creating a virtual simulation with the help of computer technology geographical information system and satellite mapping among other such things a similar methodology is being used at the hajj pilgrimage site for the past few years which has helped in preventing incidents of stampede there in order to create a simulation for the 2015 kumbh mela everything will have to be done from the scratch as closed circuit television cctv cameras were not put up in the city during the last kumbh there are no videos of the crowd attending the mela available to study the flow of pilgrims and crowd behaviour if things go as planned the entire mela will be designed with the help of computer technology that will display the flow of the sadhus and other pilgrims from the sadhugram and various other roads leading to the banks of the godavari river how the crowd could react to a particular situation what the reaction could lead to followed by the desired action of the police and other agencies that could minimise the gravity of the incident in a bid to make the plan for kumbh as scientific as possible the police in the recent past had also held a meeting with the mobile operators of the district seeking their cooperation in gauging the number of people visiting nashik from outside the state during the days of the holy dip sarangal said that at least half the people coming for the kumbh from outside the state will carry mobile phones which will give them a rough idea of number of people coming for holy bath the police are also keen on getting the cctv cameras fixed at the actual locations of the shahi snan the routes leading to the river banks where the pilgrims would bathe as well as the fringes of the city from where the pilgrims would enter the city this will help in making the arrangements inside the city