Residents and families affected by the devastating train accident near Balasore district in Odisha are grappling with the aftermath and the daunting task of identifying their loved ones. Jitendar Das, a 31-year-old man, stood outside the NOCCI business park in a state of confusion, clutching a photograph of his younger brother, Jayananand. Jayananand was a passenger aboard the ill-fated Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, which met a terrible accident on the night of June 2, claiming the lives of over 270 people and leaving over 1,000 injured.
To address the mounting casualties, the Odisha government swiftly established a temporary mortuary at the North Orissa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NOCCI) business park on the outskirts of Balasore. Inside the 40,000 sq ft expo hall, nearly 150 unidentified bodies were stored. While some bodies have been identified and returned to their families or transferred to mortuaries in nearby Bhuvaneshwar, around 10 to 15 bodies remained unidentified at the NOCCI morgue as of Sunday.
Jitendar's brother, Jayananand's body was one of the many bodies that were shifted to Bhuvaneshwar on Saturday night.
"His face is not seen properly but I'm sure it's my brother," says Jitendar, who managed to reach Balasore from West Bengal only on Sunday morning, hours after his brother's body was shifted to Bhuvaneshwar.
Photos of the deceased persons kept on a table
However the Odisha government had made arrangements for the relatives and friends to identify the bodies through photographs, which is how Jitendar managed to identify his brother. "He was on his way to Chennai, where he works in a hotel. Now, I will have to figure out how to collect money to go all the way to Bhuvaneshwar to collect my brother's body," says Jitendar, who has not come to terms with the sudden demise of his brother.
21-year-old Sachin Kumar from Bihar also lost his brother in the triple train accident. His brother Kamlesh Kumar was also on board the Coromandel Express on the fateful night. "One of our people came here about 2-2.5 hours back, my brother's body was kept here then. By the time we reached, the body has been shifted to Bhuvaneshwar. I will go to Bhubaneswar now, the police haven't informed me anything," he says.
Amidst the anguish, families find themselves grappling with multiple challenges, including the difficulty of identification due to the extent of injuries and disfigurement caused by the accident. To accommodate the overwhelming number of casualties, the Odisha government also designated Bhanaga High School in Balasore as a temporary morgue.
Bodies covered and kept in a temporary morgue
"As most of the deceased are from other states like West Bengal and Bihar, the process of identification has become difficult," Balasore Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Sucharu Bal had said on Saturday.
While approximately half of the passengers with minor injuries have been discharged from hospitals after receiving treatment, around 418 injured individuals continue to receive medical care at various hospitals, including Gopalpur, Khantapara, Balasore, Bhadrak, Soro, and the SCB Medical College in Cuttack.