Search ops begin near Kedarnath

Dehradun, October 12 

The police on Friday launched a fresh operation in areas adjoining Kedarnath in search of the skeletal remains of the victims of massive floods and landslides that lashed the region in 2013, officials said.

The operation is in accordance with an order state High Court passed in 2016  asking the government to conduct searches in the tragedy-hit area to find if any more remains were lying hidden. 

Led by SP-rank officials, police teams comprising 35 members had gone deep into the jungles around the shrine in search of the remains of people who went missing after the deluge. The teams would comb the stretch between Gaurikund and Kedarnath on different routes, including Kalimath and Trijuginarayan.  The HC had issued directives on a PIL that contended that despite the state government admitting around 3,500 persons had gone missing after the deluge, only 450 bodies had been recovered. 

Thirty-one skeletons were recovered from the forests near the Trijuginarayan area in Rudraprayag district in October 2016, more than three years after the calamity.  — PTI