CHENNAI: One distracted step taken across a railway track, perhaps while talking on a mobile phone, or hurrying across because one is late and the foot overbridge is too far away, can sometimes bring one face to face with that great leveller – death. According to statistics from the Government Railway Police (GRP), 2,330 people have been struck and killed by trains on railway tracks across the State in 2011, of which an alarming 803 still remain unidentified.And yet, sadly, this is a graph that is on the rise; last year, 762 bodies were listed as unidentified of a total of 2,305 crushed to death on tracks across the State. Surely there can be nothing sadder than dying alone, unnoticed and unmourned by those one loved. The GRP and Railway Protection Force are tasked with ensuring that this does not happen. An officer with railway security states that bodies are examined thoroughly to find clues that could help identify the victim and thus help them to inform his or her kith and kin.Unidentified bodies are kept in the mortuary of Government Hospitals (with freezer facility) and in rural medical centres for a maximum of three days. “After this, unclaimed bodies are cremated. However, we preserve the thigh bone for DNA tests for future investigations,” an official stated. “A considerable number of the unidentified migrant labourers were from the north and north-eastern states – Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal,” a senior official with the GRP told Express. “The scenario is high in sections like Perambur and Avadi in and around Chennai,”. R Sekar, Additional Director General of Police, GRP stresses that people need to get in touch with the Railway Police in case of missing persons. He says, “Generally, the public is satisfied with registering a missing complaint with the local police station. But, they should also contact the railway police in this regard, which they don’t.” In Coimbatore district, as many as 68 unidentified bodies were reported up to October 2011, according to records. An additional 98 bodies, which were identified, were found on the railway tracks during the year. The district police has launched a series of efforts to enable the identification of unclaimed bodies. They have asked the public to immediately report missing persons to the nearest police station. This helps them immediately cross check with the unclaimed bodies, they say. Orphanages and homes have been instructed to immediately inform the nearest police station when they receive a new inmate.“We also circulate the photos and information among the media. If nobody turns up to claim the body in a week’s time, we bury the body after taking a portion of the collar bones to be kept as a DNA sample,” says Coimbatore city Railway inspector, Lawrence.In a novel initiative, an NGO Tholar Arakattalai has helped to carry out last rites for unclaimed bodies. “We have performed last rites for 1,530 unclaimed bodies in the last seven years. We are in touch with police who intimate us when bodies have not been claimed for a while,” says Shanthakumar, founder of Tholar Arakattalai, “Everybody deserves respect at the end of their lives.”In the Madurai Railway Division, 83 persons were struck and killed by trains last year. Of these, 20 remain unidentified. The mortal remains of these victims were initially kept at a GH mortuary. Marks of identification were circulated to all the districts in the state through crime record bureaus; even photos are circulated. Such details used to be published in newspapers to enable relatives to claim the body.Across the State, the percentage of unidentified persons killed while trespassing on tracks increased by two percent last year, from 33 per cent in 2010, to 35 percent in 2011. The new measures and appeals from the police will hopefully put this in decline and bring closure for both the victims and the families they leave behind. (With inputs from Madurai and Coimbatore)
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