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A Requiem For Victims Of Odisha Train Tragedy

Photographs captured at the site of the recent train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district tell multiple tales of tragedy. A trigger warning.

Outlook Bureau

Updated on: 10 June 2023 8:26 am

Gone Too Soon: The hand of a victim spotted at the site of the triple train accident at Balasore dis

In the aftermath of any major disaster, spectators far removed from the site of the tragedy usually fixate on what led to the accident and the number of casualties. In the case of a train accident, rarely does the reader of news seem to spare a thought for where the passengers were headed and why, and what their personal histories and dreams looked like. Even less attention is given to the trauma of rescue work, where, a rescue worker, on the condition of anonymity, confesses to having heard a mobile phone ringing somewhere on the body of a victim—a call from family, perhaps? But the worker hesitated to retrieve the phone given that the body was decomposing. In this photo feature, we attempt to pay our respects to the site of the Balasore tragedy and the people forever enmeshed and entangled in the memory of it.

"We were told that an exhibition ground was being used as a morgue. The ground was divided into two parts—on one side, there were dead bodies wrapped in sheets. On the other, was a large projector displaying images of the dead." Biswanath Paswan, relative of a missing victim

The Accident and its Aftershocks: Drone shot of the accident site revealing the impact of the collision Photo: Getty Images

Archana Dhara in distress while looking for her husband, Nikhil, who was a victim of the accident. Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee

A relative scours through photographs of the bodies of unidentified passengers. Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee

A man searches for the body of his relative who was travelling in one of the trains involved in the accident Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee

I could not identify the faces in the photos because they were distorted. This is because photos of many of the bodies were taken after they started decomposing. They should have been taken immediately after the accident. Parvati Debi, Victim’s relative

No Ordinary Journey: A man searching for his relatives at the accident site. Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee

Haidar Seikh admitted at SORO Hospital in Balasore district after his face was injured in the accident. Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee

Slippers, a tube of toothpaste, a tiffin box, bags and other belongings strewn across an empty compartment. Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee

Passengers’ belongings bursting out of one of the trains. Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee

My face has been injured from the engine’s impact. We are three brothers from Murshidabad, West Bengal. After two years of COVID, this was the first time we were travelling outside. We were going to Chennai to work. For the first time in our life, we are having to think if we will ever travel again. Haider Seikh Victim

(This appeared in the print as 'A Requiem For Victims')