The Calcutta VHF Amateur Radio Society has been participating in Ganga Sagar operations for the last three years. Every year during Makar Sankranti (an auspicious festival in India) on the 14th and 15th of January approximately half a million people gather at Sagar island for Ganga Sagar Mela, in the Bay of Bengal where the river Ganges meets the ocean. The island is located in the estuarine region of the river Ganges and is one of the many delta islands in the "Sunderban" areas, the worlds largest mangrove forests (Realm of the Royal Bengal Tiger). The C.V.A.R.S. team operates there upon request from the district administration to assist them in maintaining an emergency Amateur Radio link at all the cross over points from the mainland and the island. The links are utilised for locating missing persons and reuniting families scattered across various points and also to maintain an emergency line of communication from the mainland to the island. In January, 2001 a 15 member team had operated from the various points with 2 HF (one at Lot-8 the main cross over point on the island and the other at Sagar mela grounds on the island) and 10 VHF stations. The society inspite of its very limited resources had also participated in the Orissa Ham Disaster Communication Operations and had sent a 5 member team to Jajpur district after Super cyclone 05B had wrecked havoc in the state of Orissa. All the mobile operations of the society are funded by its members and Sagar is no exception. This year (2001) the Sagar team was not even aware of the possibilities of Sagar IOTA (Islands On The Air) and it was only a QSO with VU2UR (OM Arasu from Bangalore) from the island on 40M band which proved to be the lucky break. The efforts and persuasion of OM Arasu, VU2UR (Regional MS Coordinator, IARU Region 3.) to try and activate the West Bengal group of islands (Sagar was already in the RSGB IOTA list, still not activated) and the quick and efficient communication through the internet by the Calcutta Amateur Radio Control led to the news being spread like wildfire. The Calcutta Control received requests from many VU hams as well as the RSGB IOTA body and a decision was taken to spend some spare time on 20M on 14.260 MHz and set the Sagar IOTA ball rolling. The team spent around 5 hours in the course of two days just making time from the hectic schedule. The response was overwhelming. There was no electricity on the island during daytime and when the generators started in the evenings the QRN on 20M shot up to S9 and above. Yet the team managed over 300 QSO's spanning North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. In the end it was serving people which made it all possible and Sagar and the West Bengal Group of islands received permanent IOTA status AS-153. For us here at CVARS the ticket to Sagar is in Ganga Sangar Mela and the satisfaction we gain from serving half a million people far surpasses a thousand IOTAs.