81 Bodies Still Unclaimed 8 Days After Odisha Train Crash; What’s Next?

Bhubaneswar: Though more than a week has lapsed since the triple train crash in Bahanaga station in Odisha’s Balasore district, 81 bodies are still lying unclaimed in containers with deep freezers at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar.

Till Friday, 68 DNA samples of those looking for the kin have been collected to identify the bodies. Those will matched with that of the deceased using a software at Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Delhi.

Meanwhile, the Odisha government has reached out to West Bengal and Bihar, the Centre and Indian Railways to collectively decide on the appropriate disposal method. “We have asked AIIMS to notify us at least 24 hours before the deadline when the bodies can’t be kept further. The government will consult all stakeholders to take a collective decision. We sincerely believe the dead deserve a dignified farewell,” chief secretary Pradeep Jena told TOI.

He added that the bodies, if unclaimed, will be disposed off after exhausting all options of handing them over to their families.

AIIMS-Bhubaneswar additional medical superintendent Prabhas Ranjan Tripathy said that these embalmed bodies can be kept at best for one more week. “These would be cremated if there are no claimants. Cremation will be done in a scientific manner and with dignity,” he told the media.

Altogether 2,296 passengers were travelling in Howrah Superfast Express and Coromandel Express, which collided following the derailment of the latter after ramming a stationary goods train on June 2 evening. The triple crash claimed 288 lives. While 211 passengers were declared dead at the spot by doctors mobilised from Bhadrak and Balasore, the rest were either received dead at different hospitals or succumbed while undergoing treatment.