Kumbh Mela is one of the largest religious mass gathering events (MGE) involving bathing in rivers. The exponential rise in the number of devotees, from around 0.4 million in 1903 to 120 million in 2013, bathing in small specified sites can have a dramatic impact on the river ecosystem. Here, we present the spatiotemporal profiling of bacterial communities in Godavari River, Nashik, India, comprising five sites during the Kumbh Mela, held in 2015. Assessment of environmental parameters indicated deterioration of water quality. Targeted amplicon sequencing demonstrates approximately 37.5% loss in microbial diversity because of anthropogenic activity during MGE. A significant decrease in phyla viz. Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes was observed, while we noted substantial increase in prevalence of the phylum Firmicutes (94.6%) during MGE. qPCR estimations suggested nearly 130-fold increase in bacterial load during the event. Bayesian mixing model accounted the source of enormous incorporation of bacterial load of human origin. Further, metagenomic imputations depicted increase in virulence and antibiotic resistance genes during the MGE. These observations suggest the striking impact of the mass bathing on river ecosystem. The subsequent increase in infectious diseases and drug-resistant microbes pose a critical public health concern.

A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, non-motile bacterium, strain PRD07, was isolated from Godavari river, India during the world's largest spiritual and religious mass bathing event 'Kumbh Mela'. Molecular analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis reveals the distinct phylogenetic positioning of strain PRD07 within the genus Corynebacterium. The strain demonstrated highest sequence similarity to Corynebacterium imitans DSM 44264 (97.9 %), Corynebacterium appendicis DSM 44531 (97.1 %) and <96.7 % with all other members of the genus Corynebacterium. The G+C content of PRD07 was 68.5 mol% (Tm) and the DNA-DNA hybridization depicts 61.09 % genomic relatedness with C. imitans DSM 44264. Chemotaxonomic assessment of strain PRD07 suggested presence of C16 : 0 (31.6 %), C18 : 0 (3.5 %) and C18 : 1ω9c (58.6 %) as the major cellular fatty acids. The major polar lipids of strain PRD07 were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and glycophospholipid. Differentiating molecular, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic characteristics of strain PRD07 with its closest relatives necessitated the description of strain PRD07 as a novel species of genus Corynebacterium for which the name Corynebacteriumgodavarianum sp. nov., has been proposed. The type strain is PRD07 (=MCC 3388=KCTC 39803=LMG 29598).

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