When Protocols Become Fairy Tales and Gods Remain Buried Under: Excerpts From the Diary of Forensic Experts at Ground Zero During the Mega Quake That Hit Nepal.

More than a year has passed since the mega quake hit Nepal. Although a lot is written about the lacunae in disaster preparedness, lessons learnt, and public health concerns after the aftermath, nothing much has been written about the fate of the deceased. Although saving takes priority after a disaster, the management of dead bodies also requires immediate attention because the process of identification becomes more difficult and expensive as time passes. This article shares the firsthand experiences of forensic experts at ground zero during the quake that may be useful to forensic experts responsible for handling such situations worldwide.

Craniometric analysis for estimation of stature in Nepalese population--A study on an autopsy sample.

Establishing the identity of the deceased becomes essential when highly decomposed bodies, mutilated body parts or skeletal remains are recovered from mass fatality sites. In these situations, estimation of stature along with other parameters such as age, sex and race/ethnicity becomes important to establish the biological profile of the deceased. Following the Maoist insurgency in Nepal, there have been numerous discoveries of unidentified human remains in mass graves or otherwise. No systemic studies and anthropological data on the Nepalese population however, is available posing problems in anthropologic evaluation of the remains. The sample of the present study consisted of 200 autopsied cases (148 males and 52 female adult cadavers). During the autopsy, the scalp was reflected after giving a coronal incision extending from one mastoid to the other exposing the cranium in each case. Maximum cranial length (MCL), maximum cranial breadth (MCB), bi-zygomatic breadth (BZB), minimum frontal breadth (MFB) and length of parietal chord (PC) were then measured. Stature was measured as the length of the body from head to heel in centimeters with the heel, buttocks, back of the shoulders and the head in contact with the autopsy table. Linear and stepwise multiple regression models were derived for estimation of stature from cranial measurements. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate regression models show statistically significant correlation between stature and the cranial measurements. The present study opines that the stature estimation from cranial dimensions using multivariate linear regression models is more accurate than those of the univariate and bivariate regression models. This study presents a rare data from Nepalese population that show typical Asian features and thus, is significant from anthropologic and genetic point of view. The study observations further contribute a baseline data bank for forensic pathologists and specialists.