Five years on, 670 Kedarnath flash flood victims still unidentified
DEHRADUN: Five years after the flash floods in Kedarnath, just 29 of 699 people who perished in the disaster have been identified, either through recovery of their remains (11) or through DNA samples (18). The remaining 670 victims are yet to be identified, additional director general of police Ashok Kumar said on Wednesday.
As the disaster struck in 2013, rescuers were able to recover 11 bodies; DNA samples of 688 victims were collected and sent for testing. “So far, 18 samples have been reconciled. We also informed the relatives of the victims who have been identified,” Kumar said.
“We perform the last rites (of the victims) through the remains as and when we find them, and for this reason the skeletal remains are not handed over to the relatives,” Kumar added. Uttarakhand, especially the hill districts of Rudraprayag, Urttarakashi, Chamoli and Pittoragrh, were swept by flash floods in June 2013 that left a trail of devastation. There is still no final count of the number of people who died in the tragedy. According a report released in 2013 by the National Institute of Disaster Management,169 people died and 4,021 had gone missing, who were later presumed to be dead.
The police’s account differs. “We have reports which say 3,886 persons went missing in the disaster,” Kumar said. As per the data submitted by the state government to the high court, 678 bodies/skeletons/skeletal remains were recovered until last year. After last week’s addition, the count has gone up to 699. Officials have said 545 bodies/ skeletons/skeletal remains were recovered in 2013, 63 in 2014, three in 2015, 60 in 2016, and seven last year. In a search operation undertaken last week, 21 skeletal remains were found on two different trek routes to Kedarnath. Three of these remains were found on the Kedarnath-trijuginarayan trekking route and 18 other pieces of scattered bones near Rambara, on the Gaurikund-kedarnath route.