Prayagraj: With the reunion of 2,129 missing people with their families at the ongoing Magh Mela on the banks of the Ganga, the traditional lost and found camp, popularly known as ‘Bhoole Bhatke Shivir’, which takes a crusade to reunite lost and missing people with their families during mega religious fairs like Magh Mela, Ardh Kumbh and Kumbh, crossed the figure of reuniting 15.38 lakh people with their families in the past 80 years.Having set up ‘Bhoole Bhatke Shivir’ by its founder, late Raja Ram Tiwari, in 1946, the camp reunited a total of 15.38 lakh people, including 22,000 children, between 1946 and 2025.Revealing the statistics of lost and found people, Umesh Tiwari, the organiser of the camp, told TOI that volunteers reunited as many as 2,219 people, including 1,300 men, 745 women and 84 children, between Jan 1 and 26, 2026 at the ongoing Magh Mela. He added, “Volunteers of three generations are working round the clock on the banks of the Ganga with the one and sole motto of serving mankind.”This time, apart from manual work of maintaining records, volunteers took help from social media and digital platforms to reunite lost people with their families. Pointedly, the volunteers managed to reunite over 54,000 people during the Maha Kumbh-2025 on the banks of the Ganga.Tiwari said, “Volunteers from different districts and states are working for a noble cause, and the majority of them were engaged on main bathing days.” A group of 20 active volunteers have joined and performed their duties on the mela campus, and would stay at the camp until the last main snan of Maha Shivratri on Feb 15.“We feel inner satisfaction to reunite lost people with their families. When lost people stay at the camp, we offer them food and a blanket and take care of them until they are safely reunited,” said a volunteer.
