The State government, on Saturday, launched another combing operation to search for the bodies of people killed in the June 2013 deluge in the Kedarnath Valley.
Even almost a year after the disaster, dead bodies can be traced in the valley where 3,890 people died in the June 16-17 deluge.
Rudraprayag District Magistrate Raghav Langer said 12 bodies, recently found, were disposed of on Saturday.
Around 545 bodies were disposed of in the combing operations last year that lasted four months after the deluge.
Mr Langer said, “The combing operations resumed when snow in the valley started melting in March this year. However, not many bodies were found until June 11 when five bodies were traced near Jungle Chatti.”
Mr Langer said that although some bodies were surfacing, there were many bodies buried under thousands of tonnes of debris which would be impossible to find.
A high level task force has been formed for the combing operations. The task force shall comprise Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel, and Rudraprayag district police. The task force shall search the Kedarnath Valley from Sonprayag to the shrine for 20 days to find and cremate the bodies of the deceased.
Mr Langer said, “The special task force is in addition to the regular combing operations conducted by the local police in the valley.”
