By Rajnish Singh
New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS): They are found along railway tracks, by the roadside, in parks, in unused wells, behind petrol pumps... Every single day, Delhi Police recover an average of eight or nine bodies across the capital, some rotting and some bruised and battered.
Most victims remain unidentified. A handful are those of children. But mostly, they are in the age group of 35 to 80 years, the majority of them males.
Delhi Police data reveals that 2,199 unidentified bodies were found between Jan 1 and Aug 26 this year, which works out to nine bodies a day.
The maximum of 461 were found in North Delhi police district, the least (69) in the less populous South West district. New Delhi area, home to most VVIPs and parliament, yielded 105 bodies.
In August alone, police were led to 216 bodies in nearly four weeks.
If the nine-a-day average is maintained, 1,098 more bodies are bound to be found till Dec 31, making a total of 3,297 for 2014.
The number found in 2013 was 2,894, down from 3,325 in 2012. The 2011 tally was 3,291.
Police officers say no one comes to identify the bodies in most cases. Eventually, after preserving them for 72 hours, they are either buried or cremated based on identifiable religious marks.
"If the body is not identified in terms of religion, it is burnt," Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat told IANS.
Officers told IANS that most victims look very poor -- and victims of hit and run accidents.
"Generally we recover bodies from footpath, pavements, on railway tracks and secluded places," said an officer who requested anonymity. "Bodies are also at times found behind shopping malls and near monuments."
"A few are clearly murder victims, some seem to be suicide cases, a few probably die natural death," he added. "Most appear to be victims of road accidents."
Some bodies are found near hospitals and cremation grounds.
Once a body is found, information such as probable age, visible marks, dress, gender, height, complexion, religious marks if any and the place of recovery is uploaded on ZipNet, a web application.
The information is also published in newspapers.
"As much as 93 percent of all bodies we find are of males," another officer told IANS. "There are very few children... just about four in a thousand."
A few male victims are in the 18-30 age group. Females are aged mostly between 24 to 75 years.
"Frankly, we have no specific data on how many bodies get identified by their families," the officer said. "If you asked me, the number is really low."
How do police discover the bodies, more so in secluded spots?
In most cases, the alert comes from people who stumble on the bodies. "There are anonymous calls too. People telephone us, give us basic details and then quickly hang up."