Bhubaneswar/Baragada: Odisha government has sent DNA test reports of the family members of four Odisha-origin people who went missing following the devastating glacial collapse and flash floods in Nepal, an official said Friday.
The natural calamity hit the Himalayan nation August 26, killing at least 1,410 people and leaving more than 6,100 missing. Several bodies, found severely decomposed, remain unidentified.
Four people, belonging to two families, had gone missing following the deluge, and DNA test reports of their kin have been sent to the neighbouring country in a bid to identify their bodies, the nodal officer to extend support to Odia people affected by the Nepal floods, Pritish Panda, told PTI.
Sandeep Mohapatra and his wife Sidharthi Kumari Sahu, originally from Odisha’s Khordha district and settled in Australia since 2018, have gone missing.
Gunnam Saibindu and her 18-month-old daughter Gunnam Hareeksha from Baragada district were also not found, he said.
Saibindu’s husband, Gunnam Jay Krishna, is working as an engineer in a hydropower project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district. He was at the site when disaster struck. His wife and daughter were in a colony, about 14km away from the power plant, and both went missing as flood and debris swept away the colony, Panda said.
“We have collected the DNA samples from the parents of the NRI couple and Saibindu Kumari and sent the reports to the Indian Embassy in Nepal and also the Nepal government. Once a match is found with any of the unidentified bodies, they will inform us,” he added.
Bodies of 1,410 people were recovered from the eight affected districts of Nepal. A total of 13,756 people have been rescued so far from the flood-affected area.
PTI