Lucknow, July 22 -- Just a year after being named India's 'Best Heritage Tourist Village' by the Ministry of Tourism, Pura Mahadev in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district is now proving why it earned that honour - with an extraordinary surge in pilgrim footfall this Sawan.

Once a quiet rural site, the village is now welcoming over one lakh visitors every day, and on Mondays the figure surges between six to seven lakh. This year tourists from the UK, Canada and Mauritius have arrived in the village to see the Mela of Sawan.

Officials estimate that around 40 lakh pilgrims will participate in the Sawan Mela, which concludes on July 24, transforming the village into a buzzing centre of devotion and rural enterprise.

A shrine with history, and ...