The 2015 Kumbh Mela was the first Kumbh Mela to have zero casualties because of this guy and his team
Nilay Kulkarni was 15 years old when he decided to do something about the terrifying number of people who die every year in stampedes. In the 2013 Kumbh Mela, 42 people died and at least 45 were injured.
Kulkarni, now the software head of his startup, Ashioto, developed a cloud-based crowd counting platform with the help of a sensory mat.
This mat counts the number of people stepping on it, and also estimates the crowd density at that point. The info is then passed on using a communication unit which notifies authorities. If the crowd density at a point is beyond a safe threshold, the police can be alerted immediately and a stampede can be prevented.
Kulkarni's now 18 and the reason why the 2015 Kumbh Mela held at Nashik was stampede-free.
