The Chamoli police on Thursday said that a total of 61 bodies and 28 body parts have been recovered till now following the glacial burst in Uttarakhand.
Out of those, 34 bodies and one body part have been identified, and DNA samples of 56 family members and 49 bodies have been taken, informed the police in a tweet.
Meanwhile, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) on Thursday said that 12 of its teams are engaged in the rescue operation for missing people from Reni village to Srinagar, and that the communication team is also working simultaneously for better communication in the area.
The 12 SDRF teams are searching for bodies using binoculars, sniffer dogs, and rafts from Reni village to downstream Srinagar town. Rafts are being used in tributaries of the Ganga—Rishi Ganga, Dhauli Ganga and Alaknanda rivers.
Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar on Thursday had informed that one body part was recovered from Tapovan tunnel, while a body was found from Reni village's north side today. Search and rescue operations will continue for a long time due to the large amount of debris and mud inside the tunnel.
After days of digging and excavation works, jawans of the army and ITBP, the NDRF, and the SDRF, who are engaged in rescue works, had managed to open a sizeable portion of the tunnel and also dig a big hole vertically downwards.
A glacier burst in the Tapovan-Reni area of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand on 7 February led to massive flooding in the Dhauli Ganga and Alaknanda rivers, and damaged houses and the nearby Rishi Ganga power project.
(With inputs from agencies)