ALLAHABAD: The sprawling 35-square km Kumbh Mela area with its administrative offices, police stations, fire stations, hospitals, civic infrastructure and cultural centres, is akin to a self-sufficient country and in fact bigger in geographical area than at least four nations.The venue of one of the world’s biggest congregation beats Vatican City, Monaco and island nations Nauru and Tuvalu in sheer size. This year, the Kumbh mela ground is 25% bigger in area than the 2013 mahakumbh.While the notified Kumbh area is over 35 sq km, the world’s smallest country, Vatican City, is spread over 0.44 sq km. The next, Monaco, one of the most densely populated sovereign nations, has an area of 2.02 sq km while Republic of Nauru, an island nation near Australia, spans 20.98 sq km. The fourth island nation, Tuvalu, straddles 26 sq km.Officials estimate the Kumbh area will house pilgrims and seers between 5 lakh and 3 crore, depending on snan days. The population also includes sanitary, health workers, medical teams, police and administrative personnel deployed at the venue. The state government, however, has projected a footfall of 13 crore.If the population at the mela area is taken into account, the area would be more populated than Seychelles, Kiribati, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Maldives and Malta, which have a population of only 4 lakh.The state government has notified the Kumbh Mela area as a district. The Kotwali and 39 reporting police outposts would cease operations on March 8.Police department officials said police stations have been listed to maintain law and order in the mela area.

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