Mumbai: This year’s Ganeshotsav at Mumbai’s famous Lalbaugcha Raja pandal saw an extraordinary blend of faith and technology. For the first time, Mumbai Police used artificial intelligence (AI) tools to manage massive crowds and prevent crime, and the results were impressive.
Officials said AI-based systems helped them track the flow of lakhs of devotees who visited the pandal between August 27 and September 5. The system monitored both entry and exit points. Whenever the data showed that more people were entering than leaving, it alerted officers that a stagnant crowd could be building up. Police then sent personnel to the exact location to ease the movement and prevent overcrowding.
Explaining the process, an official said on X, “The number of people entering and the number of people exiting is where AI tools helped us. When entries were more and exits were less, we would know there was a stagnant crowd somewhere in the pandal. We used to send someone immediately to disperse the crowd.”
The police also deployed AI for crime detection. A database of 10,000 known criminals was fed into a facial recognition system. The software successfully matched around 100 suspects during the festival. Once the system identified a suspect, the surveillance team moved in quickly. This preventive action meant that incidents of mobile theft and chain-snatching, which are common during Ganeshotsav, were brought down sharply.
A senior officer said that due to the system, mobile theft cases were limited and no chain-snatching incidents were reported at Lalbaugcha Raja this year. “Once the suspect was identified, our team reached immediately. This year, devotees reported very few mobile thefts, and there were no cases of chain-snatching,” the officer added.
Ganeshotsav 2025: Massive Crowd Of Devotees Gathers To Seek Blessings Of Lalbaugcha Raja In MumbaiThe experiment has shown that technology can play a crucial role in crowd management and crime prevention during large-scale religious festivals. With nearly a million devotees visiting Lalbaugcha Raja every day, manual policing often falls short. By combining traditional vigilance with AI tools, the police managed to keep both queues and crime under control.
Authorities are now considering extending such technology-driven crowd and crime management systems to other major festivals and gatherings in Mumbai. The success at Lalbaugcha Raja could serve as a model for future public safety initiatives across the state.
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