India's floods death toll rises to 167

The death toll of India's floods has reached 167, after rescue teams have retrieved 68 more bodies, local government sources revealed on Saturday. The government sources said that 68 dead persons went missing after floods, landslides and torrential rains hit the upper reaches of northern state of Uttrakhand on June 15. The discovered bodies were decomposed. The administration has taken DNA and other samples so as to identify the dead person before cremating them. The sources said the relief operations will continue in the high altitude areas to locate more missing persons in the disaster. Majority of the dead are piligrims who have gone up in the mountains to tour the sacred hindu Kedarnath shrine, sources said. Kedarnath hosts a sacred shrine form the Hindu devotees and is one of the four in the famous four shrines tourist circuits. It was almost completely wiped out in the disaster resulting in killings of hundreds of people. Torrential rains, flash floods, cloud bursts and landslides triggered devastation in ecologically sensitive state Uttarakhand on June 15. The calamity killed around 6,000 people including tourists and pilgrims who were on their way up to kedarnath shrine. Hundreds are still missing. The disaster also washed away roads, habitations and other infrastructure in the region.