DEHRADUN: Twelve years after the devastating Kedarnath floods, the identity of many victims still remains shrouded in mystery. A particularly perplexing aspect is the fate of 702 individuals whose DNA samples are in the possession of police, but they are yet to match with samples of their family members. The wait for thousands of grieving relatives is agonising. This impedes closure to the affected relatives in one of India’s worst modern tragedies.“It’s heartbreaking,” a senior police official involved in the recovery efforts, told this newspaper. “We have the DNA reports for these 702 individuals, but without a corresponding match from the family samples, their identities remain elusive.”Following the 2013 disaster, police initiated a comprehensive effort to identify the deceased. DNA samples were meticulously collected from 735 bodies, body parts, and skeletal remains recovered from the disaster zone. These were dispatched to a specialised laboratory in Bengaluru for analysis.Simultaneously, the police appealed for DNA samples from the relatives. The call saw an overwhelming response, with over 6,000 individuals submitting their samples to the lab.Of the 735 DNA samples of the deceased, only a few were successfully matched. “This highlights the sheer scale and complexity of victim identification in such a devastating event,” ADGP Amit Sinha, Director of Forensic Science Laboratory, told this newspaper. “We sent 735 samples of bodies, body parts, and skeletons to the Bengaluru lab, and over 6,000 family members also provided their DNA. Yet, only 33 matches were made.”
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