Twenty-one bodies were extricated on Wednesday from tonnes of debris lying in Kedarnath and consigned to flames after necessary rituals. This takes the number of bodies disposed of at the Himalayan shrine to 140 since the start of operations over a month ago, police said.
The process of extricating the bodies from under heaps of rubble lying close to the shrine which witnessed massive devastation in the June calamity was frequently hampered by bad weather and lack of heavy stone cutting equipment with the police and NDRF personnel engaged in the operation.
However, with a slight improvement in the weather on Wednesday, the exercise gained momentum at the shrine with the disposal of 21 bodies after necessary religious rituals and completion of other formalities like their DNA sampling, police sources in Dehradun said. Police and NDRF personnel are jointly carrying out the exercise under the supervision of DIG G S Martoliya, they said.
Ornaments like rings, earrings, bangles and necklaces found on the bodies have been preserved to help their kin identify them, police sources in Dehradun said. While the number of bodies cremated so far at Kedarnath is 140, the total number of bodies disposed of in the entire Kedar valley since the start of operations has risen to 215. Over 6,000 were feared killed in devastating floods, landslides and cloudbursts in the state in June this year.
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