The Indian Embassy in China on Monday urged families of Indians missing since the August 26 flash flood in the Tibet-Nepal border region to provide DNA samples to help identify them.
The Indian mission made the request after Chinese authorities confirmed that they were now able to receive DNA samples from families of Indian nationals listed as missing in the disaster, an Embassy press release said.
Families willing to provide DNA information have been asked to submit the relevant data in the internationally recognised CODIS format, it said.
The Embassy will forward the data to the concerned Chinese authorities for comparison.
“The Embassy will be notified, and will in turn inform the family, should a match be confirmed”, it said.
“Blood samples can be collected from the parents of the missing foreign national or the spouse and children (samples from multiple children should be collected wherever possible),” the Indian mission said.
“If the missing person has no living parents or children, kindly collect blood samples from siblings (collecting samples from all siblings is preferred),” it said.
The Indian mission said that if necessary, samples can be collected from other maternal relatives (e.g., cousins on the maternal side) and paternal relatives (e.g., cousins on the paternal side) with specified details of the relationship.
“DNA STR data for the aforementioned samples is required; for males, Y-STR data must also be included. Data should be stored in the internationally recognised CODIS format”, it said.
The embassy said that the samples should be well labelled with the nationality, name and passport number of the missing person, name and passport number of the family member and sample ID number.
“Families may contact the Embassy of India at the following for further guidance: Telephone: 86 18514284905 Email: cons1.beijing@mea.gov.in”, it said.
The disaster was triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, sending a massive surge of water and debris downstream through the Bhotekoshi River and devastating settlements in northern and central Nepal.
On Sunday, Chinese officials updated the death toll to 43, with 519 others remaining missing.
The missing include 261 foreigners, of whom 49 are from India.
Most of the dead and missing foreigners were on both sides of the ill-fated immigration building when it was devoured by the flood.
