The sacred Hindu festival, Purna Maha Kumbh, occurring every 144 years, is the world's largest human gathering. The 2025 festival held in Prayagraj this January attracted a crowd of 663 million, and amidst this vast congregation authorities were faced with the significant challenge of reuniting 54,000 devotees separated from their families.
Overcoming mobile network congestion to reunite separated families
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of lost children wearing wristband were reunited with their family
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of lost children wearing wristband were found in 5 minutes
The Challenge
Over 250,000 individuals, many of whom were children, have vanished during past events, facing exploitation or permanent family separation. Search and rescue efforts are traditionally severely limited due to mobile network congestion from crowd density. Such an extraordinary, high-density event requires an unprecedented innovative approach from emergency response teams.
The Approach
Inspired by Garuda, the celestial guardian of Hindu mythology, this technology combines traditional wisdom with modern engineering.
Utilizing 1970s marine navigation techniques, it employs an 8-bit communication method that transmits critical updates over long distances using less than 1 kilobyte of data, utilizing offline navigation technology to effectively bypass network congestion challenges.
The Solution
Upon arrival, children and their guardians received low-cost wristbands. When a child went missing, guardians simply tapped their ID bands at the Lost and Found Centre to activate the Garuda Rakshak system. The drone, armed with real-time geo-data from the child's wristband, sprang into action, pinpointing the child's location within minutes. It deployed an extendable color marker high in the sky, cutting through the chaos to visually guide rescuers, while simultaneously transmitting the child's details to the on-ground rescue team. This seamless, revolutionary solution ensured a fast, reliable rescue, even in the most chaotic situations. Once the rescue was confirmed, the drone resumed its patrol, ready for subsequent missions.
Innovating to Impact
Garuda Rakshak is a groundbreaking innovation that combined technology, cultural symbolism and real-time problem-solving. Faced with the collapse of mobile networks at the Purna Maha Kumbh, Dentsu Creative India and DSP Mutual Fund partnered with Falco Robotics to create a network-independent, offline-first system which used ultra-low frequency signals to track lost children. This solution was vital in a crisis where traditional technology failed and offered a tangible, life-saving service.
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