Priest who discovered remains say he feels ‘remorseful’ for reviving memories of 2013 tragedy

DEHRADUN :Even as search operations were underway on Sunday to locate the remains of what are believed to be the victims of the 2013 Kedarnath disaster who perished during the deluge, Atul Jamloki, priest of the Triyuginarayan temple who led the team that spotted the remains for the first time last week, told TOI that he felt remorseful about “informing the outside world of the presence of skeletons since it has once again raked up the haunting memories of thousands of people dying during the disaster.” “I was reluctant to mention this to anyone but I wrote about the spotting of the skeletons in my report. This has now stirred up old painful memories of the disaster again and I feel sad about it,” he said.However, he added that he sought solace from the fact that at least now, those who had died struggling with injuries in the tough terrain and battling inclement weather, will at least get a dignified cremation.On recent reports that locals had informed the forest department about the presence of the skeletons almost a year ago, Jamloki said, “ I don’t think any of the local persons knew about their presence. Most of the villagers do not trek up to this high altitude even for grazing cattle. We, too, could spot the remains because our trekking group took a different route than the stipulated one because of bad weather.”Ashok Semwal, a local trekker, recalled that when the flash floods disaster had struck, many of those who escaped also saw people taking the Triyuginarayan route for safety. “We had informed the State Disaster Response Force about the possibility of dead persons lying on that route. However, we don’t know what they did about it.”