When Mahant shankar Das arrived in Haridwar on 15 march to participate in the festival, cases of Covid-19 were already rising in many parts of India. On 4 april, just four days after the festival officially began, the 80-year-old hindu priest tested positive for Covid-19 and was advised to quarantine in a tent. But instead of isolating, he packed his bags, boarded a train and travelled 1,000km (621 miles) to the city of Varanasi. There, his son nagendra Pathak met him at the railway station and they rode a shared taxi to their village 20km (12 miles) away in the adjoining district of Mirzapur. The festival was scaled down only a week later after the lead monk of one of the participating groups died. Mr modi requested the seers to turn the festival from then on into a symbolic event. But the damage had already been done.