Skeletal remains found near Gaurikund

The skeletal remains of a person, presumed to be a victim of the 2013 Kedarnath disaster, were found near Gaurikund in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district. A human skull and bones were found when locals were removing the debris of a wall which had collapsed following heavy rains.

DM Rudraprayag Mangesh Ghildiyal said that after keeping the sample for DNA profiling, the last rites were performed at Sonprayag ghat.

An old boundary wall of a lodge at Gaurikund had collapsed following heavy rains. “Locals started removing the debris on Thursday morning and after some time they found the skull and the human bones. It appears to be just one person,” Ghildiyal said, adding that cremation was done as per Hindu rituals in the presence of a police team.
Earlier, there was news that skeletal remains of three people were found near Kedarnath. However, the district authorities said that was a rumour floated on the social media.

In October 2016, a team of trekkers had spotted skeletons on the 27-km long Triyuginarayan-Kedarnath route. The group was part of the Hito Kedar project in which over 200 trekkers took eight different routes to reach the Kedarnath shrine. Later, based on the report submitted by the team, the then chief minister Harish Rawat had asked for an immediate search operation to recover the rest.

The Uttarakhand police completed its operation on Triyuginarayan-Kedarnath route on October 17 and confirmed that skeletons of 31 victims of the 2013 tragedy were found. Later, 19 more skeletal remains were found on different routes taking the recovery toll to 50 in October 2016 itself.