Joint teams of Uttarakhand Police and State Disaster Relief Force have continued to conduct their search operations to find bodies or skeletons of the victims of the flash flood disaster that had struck Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district in 2013.
Ten teams have been deployed in different trek routes connecting this pilgrimage town.
A team, assigned to survey Chaurabari returned to Kedarnath on Friday as the group failed to retrieve any dead body or skeleton there. The teams began the search operations earlier this week and it will conclude on Sunday.
Superintendent of Police (Rudraprayag) Navneet Singh Bhuller said, “Ten teams are involved in the operation. Two teams have completed their operation and returned to Kedarnath. They failed to retrieve any human body and skeletons.”
This special search operation was launched following an order passed by the Uttarakhand High Court in this regard earlier this year. In 2013, Kedarnath was the epicenter of the disaster.
Thousands of pilgrims lost their lives and went missing in the devastating flash flood. A total of 3,886 persons were found missing. So far 699 dead bodies/skeletons have been recovered during various search operations, conducted after 2013.
Of them, 18 DNA samples have been matched and 11 bodies identified. The ten search teams comprising altogether 60 personnel resumed their special operation on Wednesday, which will be concluded on 20 September.
The search teams have been asked to provide a report on a daily basis to the Inspector General of Police (Garhwal Range) Abhinav Kumar.