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New Delhi: A 19-member team of DNA experts from India has begun a painstaking task of collecting, preserving and analysing biological samples to identify hundreds of victims of the devastating flash floods in Nepal, and ultimately helping authorities in returning the bodies to their relatives.

HT ImageDivided into six teams, the Indian delegation for Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) comprises 10 experts from the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) in Gandhinagar and nine from the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL) in Delhi.

On Monday, the teams, led by Bhargav Patel, head of the Centre of Excellence in DNA Forensics at NFSU, in coordination with experts from Nepal Police’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Kathmandu and the Forensics Department of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, started collecting biological samples from the bodies — mostly mutilated — as well as from people searching their loved ones.

“The Indian team has been deployed to support Nepal in Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) — a process that involves documenting bodies and body parts, assigning identification numbers, collecting appropriate biological samples and eventually helping authorities reunite remains with relatives,” Dr SO Junare, campus director of NFSU, told HT.

The larger objective, Junare added, is to help the authorities in Nepal “with identification and ensure that victims receive a dignified final farewell.”

The Indian experts sent to Nepal were also part of the forensic scientists’ team that helped in identifying the victims of the Air India Flight 171 crash near Ahmedabad airport last year.

Yog Bahadur Pal, a senior Nepal Police officer, said that more than 600 bodies remained unidentified after the August 26 tragedy. “We have collected DNA samples from their teeth, thigh bones, fingerprints, and other specific body parts. We are using a software called Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is administered by the FBI as well,” Pal said, adding that along with the health department, police have already created a large database of DNA evidence collected from the victims.

Junare said identifying victims of tragedy of such devastating magnitude requires meticulous efforts.

“Photographs are taken, body parts documented and a proper number is assigned to each body so that every piece of evidence can be traced through the identification process. In such disasters, the task is particularly difficult because many bodies can be severely damaged or mutilated, leaving forensic experts to determine which part can still yield usable DNA,” Junare said.

Identification is not simply about establishing a scientific fact, he said. “It involves being respectful to the victims and handing over the remains to relatives for a dignified burial or cremation.”

In cases where families cannot be located, the government can undertake the final rites, he said.

Arjun Subedi, a Nepalese home ministry official, said they are coordinating with various embassies seeking assistance in the victim identification process.

“The victims are from different parts of the world. We have written to all embassies offering to take medical records that they send us on email too. It may be difficult for them to travel to Nepal immediately. They can give the blood samples in the hospitals back home and then email us the records through their embassy and we will match it with our records,” Subedi said.