Odisha train accident | Ringing mobile phones help relatives find injured kin

Desperate relatives made calls at the phone numbers as bodies were lying in school classrooms in Bahanga that was converted into makeshift mortuary for Odisha train accident victims

It was around 2 a.m. on June 3 at Bahanaga Railway Station — the site where one most of the tragic rail accidents of recent memory had occurred. After watching piles of bodies being pulled out of capsized bogies and packed off in pick-up trucks, I started wondering where bodies were heading to.

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It took me to one unusual place where one could have thought of preserving bodies. It was Bahanaga High School which would reopen in a fortnight after summer vacation. Curious to know the fate of the bodies, I entered the school premises.

The Bahanaga High School, which was converted into a makeshift mortuary, presented an unnerving experience as I stepped inside in the course of my reporting. The lifeless bodies lay strewn across the floor. I was overwhelmed hearing the constant ringtones coming from corpses. Surely, their loved ones must have been making desperate calls to ascertain the well-being of their relatives.

The school may come back to normal after it’s reopened. However, the scenes of desperation and agony will continue to haunt the children and guardians for times to come. The sleepy town of Bahanaga has suddenly gained national recognition. But few would have liked to see their town gaining attention in such manner.

As desperate relatives scurried through the piles of bodies to identify their known ones, mobile ringtones helped them in locating the bodies.

Asity Maity from East Medinpore district of West Bengal was one of the luckiest ones, who did not have to struggle to identify his relatives.