Uttarakhand disaster: Government says declare 136 missing ‘presumed dead’

Daulan Bakhla from Jharkhand shows a photo of her elder son killed in Uttarakhand. File pic/PTI

Rescuers have found 70 bodies and 29 body parts since the February 7 glacial disaster in Chamoli, the police said on Wednesday. Missing reports of 205 people have been registered at the Joshimath police station, it said in a media bulletin.

"So far, 70 bodies and 29 human body parts have been recovered from different places in the avalanche-hit areas, out of which 40 bodies and one human body part have been identified," the police said. DNA samples of bodies and 28 body parts have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Dehradun for matching, it said.

The Uttarakhand government has issued a notification authorising officials to declare "presumed dead" 136 people who are missing after the flash flood. Uttarakhand Health Secretary Amit Singh Negi said on Tuesday that the presumption of death normally happen after seven years.

The move to declare those who continue to be missing in the flash flood as presumed dead has been initiated to expedite the process of distribution of compensation among the affected families, he said.

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Day, in February, the glacier burst causing flash floods

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