More than a week after a glacial collapse near the Langtang Lirung mountain peak set off devastating floods in Nepal and Tibet, sending a deluge of rocks, mud and water to the valleys below, forensic experts are working to identify bodies. More than 1,270 people have been killed, and more than 4,700 are still missing, authorities said on Thursday. On Friday morning, reports emerged that two of the hundreds of workers trapped in tunnels at hydropower projects along the affected rivers had been rescued.
Meanwhile, authorities are using DNA testing to try to identify hundreds of bodies that have left morgues overflowing. Officials are urging first-degree relatives – fathers, mothers, sons, or daughters – of those reported missing to provide fresh blood samples for DNA profiling, police have said. For missing foreign nationals, a first-degree relative (also a father, mother, son, or daughter) abroad can also undergo DNA profiling in their home country and email the results to Nepal Police for comparison.
Hundreds of DNA samples have so far been collected from relatives. The samples collected are being sent to the Nepal Police Forensic Science Laboratory and the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology. So why is DNA identification important in the aftermath of the floods and how does it work?
In Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, forensic teams are working to identify bodies – but many have been found in a state of decomposition, said Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from a DNA testing facility in the city. Decomposition is why DNA testing becomes essential, say experts: mutilated bodies often become unrecognisable, especially after prolonged submersion in water. DNA profiles can be generated from blood, soft tissue, bone and teeth.
According to Kerstin Montelius, a molecular biologist at Sweden’s National Board of Forensic Medicine, DNA material can still be extracted from bone even if most of the tissue has decomposed. But, she cautioned, “DNA degrades, too, and circumstances set the decisions.” The globally recognised framework for managing and identifying disaster victims is Interpol’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI). DNA molecules contain the information all living cells in the human body need to function, and apart from identical twins, who share almost the same DNA, each person’s DNA is unique.
As such, it can be used to identify disaster victims or missing people. As a part of the DVI process, human remains are inspected by specialists to detect as much biometric data as possible. When a direct DNA profile of the missing person is available – for example, a missing person’s DNA sample can be taken from personal items such as toothbrush or hairbrush – the unidentified body’s DNA profile is compared with that of the missing person to see if they match.
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