AFP, MUMBAI: India’s mass Hindu pilgrimage, the Kumbh Mela, officially starts in Maharashtra state on Tuesday, with organisers desperate to avoid a repeat of a deadly stampede at the same venue 12 years ago. Thirty-nine pilgrims were trampled to death and dozens injured when the religious festival was last held on the banks of the Godavari river in the city of Nashik, around 160 km  northeast of Mumbai, in 2003. “We have learnt lessons from that stampede and have changed the route for the ‘Shahi Snan’ to avoid tight alleys and steep slopes to the bathing ghats,” Nashik district information officer K. Moghe told AFP.