A large number of people from neighbouring Bangladesh has been entering Bengal's Nadia district through the Gede border during Durga Puja this year to visit the crowd-puller pandals in Kalyani, in an unusual trend, which may possibly be attributed to social media.

Ever since some of the "theme-based" Kalyani pandals were inaugurated, Bangladeshi nationals from places such as Darshana, Kushtia, Magura, Jibannagar, Chuadanga and Jessore, have been visiting them. This happened after many of the Kalyani pandals became popular on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, visitors said.

In most cases, the Bangladeshi visitors have been returning to their homes by the evening after pandal-hopping throughout the day.

However, some have decided to stay in India during the entire festivities, with Calcutta as a part of their pandal-hopping itinerary.

Local sources said that Bangladeshi visitors have mostly been arriving early in the morning at the Gede check post, through Darshana in Bangladesh, to catch Sealdah-bound local trains to arrive in Kalyani.

Bikash Kundu, a resident of Magura in Bangladesh, who arrived at Gede on October 17, said: “Some Puja pandals in Kalyani became extremely popular on social media, and were noticed not only in Bangladesh but globally.”

“Social media has been a game-changer and has been creating a whole new level of fascination around Durga Puja pandals among many people like us in Bangladesh. Easy railway communication to India has bridged the gap between our two countries.... I made a weeklong plan to visit Durga Puja pandals in both Kalyani and Calcutta,” Kundu added.

Subarna Ghosh, a resident of Chuadanga in Bangladesh, who came to Kalyani with her son, said: “Every year, we spend Durga Puja at our home in Bangladesh, but this time we decided to come to India after watching Puja pandal videos on social media.”

Pandals such as the Grand Lisboa (Macau) model of the Luminous Club, the Char Dham replica of the A9 Block Square Park and the Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir replica of the Rathtala Puja Committee have been drawing large crowds in Kalyani.

The Puja committees began work around six months ago and their pictures and videos have been getting "massive views" on social media for weeks.

Sources at the Gede Customs and immigration check post said that normally around 2,000 Bangladeshi nationals enter Nadia district every day to visit Calcutta, mainly for medical and business needs. In other years, the number had been the same during Puja. But unlike in the past years, that number went up to around 3,000 daily over the past week.

Dinabandhu Mahaldar, the secretary of the Gede Land Port Society — an organisation of currency exchangers and traders — said: “For about the past seven days, many people from Bangladesh have been coming to Nadia.”

“However, while exchanging money, they have been asking us for details regarding Kalyani and its best Puja pandals.... This is a new trend and definitely a first for me,” he added.