Mystery of Roopkund Skeleton Lake

Skeleton lake is a glacial lake situated in Uttarakhand state in India; it’s also called roopkund skeleton lake famous due to in the year of 1942 more than five hundred skeletons are recognized edge of the lake. Roopkund is a beautiful tourist destination of the Himalayas; however, there are reports of these bones as late as the 19th century. Experts in the past thought that they could die from mass diseases, earthquakes or colds.

Ranger working in the Nanda Devi Game Reserve, HK Madhwal discovered skeletons in 1942. In 2004 Indian and European scientists are conducting the research on this issue; the team found important clues like jewelry, skulls and bones. Preserved the tissues of the bodies, DNA tests on the bodies showed that these skeletons belonged to several groups of people.

As per the carbon dating tests have determined that the bones are dated to 850 BCE. Based on skull test they said people did not die of the disease, but died of sudden hail and Snowflakes are almost as big as a cricket ball. All died because there was no shelter in the Himalayas to protect them. Due to the polluted air and freezing conditions, many bodies are well preserved. Some bodies have fallen into the lake due to earthquakes in the area. Unable to determine where all these people went before death.

Ten years of research by the CCMB with international research organizations revealed that half of these skeletons were Indian, while another half belonged to the Mediterranean region, Greece and the Crita. Mitochondrial DNA was collected and tested from 72 bone samples collected from Roopkund. Their findings show that the skeletons are not all of one period, but three distinct groups of different periods from the 7th to the 19th century. Indians in all three groups died almost a thousand years ago. Scientists say that the Greeks, Critin, Vietnamese, and Chinese died in the 17th to 18th centuries.

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Comments
Macha Raghupathi Reddy - Dec 31, 2019, 8:47 PM - Add Reply

Good

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