Roopkund -: The Mystery Lake - A Brief Study :

Roopkund (locally known as Mystery Lake, Skeletons Lake)  is a high altitude glacial lake in the Uttarakhand state of India. It lies in the lap of Trishul massif. Located in the Himalayas, the area around the lake is uninhabited, and is roughly at an altitude of 16,470 feet (5,020 m), surrounded by rock-strewn glaciers and snow-clad mountains. Roopkund is a popular trekking destination.

With a depth of about two metres, Roopokund is widely known for the hundreds of ancient human skeletons found at the edge of the lake. The human skeletal remains are visible at its bottom when the snow melts. Research generally points to a semi-legendary event where a group of people were killed in a sudden, violent hailstorm in the 9th century. Because of the human remains, the lake has been called Skeleton Lake in recent times.

Skeletons were rediscovered in 1942 by Nanda Devi game reserve ranger Hari Kishan Madhwal, although there are reports about these bones from the late-19th century. At first, British authorities feared that the skeletons represented casualties of a hidden Japanese invasion force, but it was found that the skeletons were far too old to be Japanese soldiers. The skeletons are visible in the clear water of the shallow lake during a one-month period when the ice melts. Along with the skeletons, wooden artifacts, iron spearheads, leather slippers, and rings were also found. When a team from National Geographic magazine retrieved about 30 skeletons, flesh was still attached to some of them.[1] Geneticists Niraj Rai and Manvendra Singh at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad conducted DNA tests on a hundred samples from the lake and compared them to the current Indian population. Results indicated that 70 percent of them had an affinity with Iran, while the remaining ones belonged to the local population. It is hypothesized that the Iran group took the help of local porters to seek new land for settlement. Later studies placed the time of mass death around the 9th century CE (1,200 years old).

Local legend says that the King of Kanauj, Raja Jasdhaval, with his pregnant wife, Rani Balampa, their servants, a dance troupe and others went on a pilgrimage to Nanda Devi shrine, and the group faced a storm with large hailstones, from which the entire party perished near Roopkund Lake.

Remnants belonging to more than 300 people have been found. Radiocarbon dating of the bones at Oxford University's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit determined the time period to be 850 CE ±30 years. The Anthropological Survey of India conducted a study of the skeletons during the 1950s and some samples are displayed at the Anthropological Survey of India Museum, Dehradun.

More recently, radiocarbon dating found that the remains are from very different eras. All of the remains with South Asian ancestry were dated to around 800 CE., while the other skeletal remains analyzed were dated to around 1800 CE. “These findings refute previous suggestions that the skeletons of Roopkund Lake were deposited in a single catastrophic event,” the scientists explain, in Nature Communications.

Identification :

Genome-wide DNA study of skeletons from Roopkund by Harney et al. 2018 revealed that the skeletons belonged to two distinct groups; one group is composed of individuals with broadly South-Asian related ancestry from 9th CE and the second group is composed of individuals from 200 years ago with genetic affinity with east Mediterraneans.

The studies of the skeletons revealed a common cause of death: blows to the back of the head, caused by round objects falling from above. The researchers concluded that the victims had been caught in a sudden hailstorm, just as described in the local legends and songs.

In a study published in August 2019, the DNA extracted from 38 skeletons was analyzed and revealed that many different populations experienced mortal incidents at the lake, separated in time by approximately 1,000 years and one that occurred as late as the 19th century. These findings refute previous suggestions that the skeletons of Roopkund Lake were deposited in a single catastrophic event.

Conservation concerns :

There is a growing concern about the regular loss of skeletons and it is feared that, if steps are not taken to conserve them, the skeletons may gradually vanish in the years to come. It is reported that tourists visiting the area are in the habit of taking back the bones in large numbers and the district administration has expressed the need to protect the area.The district magistrate of Chamoli District has reported that tourists, trekkers, and curious researchers are transporting the skeletons on mules and recommended that the area should be protected. Governmental agencies have made efforts to develop the area as an eco-tourism destination in an effort to protect the skeletons.

Tourism :

Roopkund is a picturesque tourist destination and one of the important places for trekking in Chamoli District, Himalayas, near the base of two Himalayan peaks: Trisul (7,120 m) and Nanda Ghunti (6,310 m).The Lake is flanked by a rock face named Junargali to the North and a peak named Chandania Kot to the East. A religious festival is held at the alpine meadow of Bedni Bugyal every autumn with nearby villages participating. A larger celebration, the Nanda Devi Raj Jat, takes place once every twelve years at Roopkund, during which Goddess Nanda is worshipped.: Roopkund lake is covered with ice for most of the year.

In popular culture :

Roopkund's skeletons were featured in a National Geographic documentary, "Riddles of the Dead: Skeleton Lake"

The Recent Findings :

Kumarasamy Thangaraj of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, said that after carrying out extensive DNA analysis for years, the team concluded that the human skeletons found at the lake belonged to two distinct genetic groups.

Some researchers have deduced that the skeletons belong to a group of Eastern Mediterranean, people from Greece and Crete, to be specific, who may have travelled to this region around the 27th century. There are others that believe the skeletons are of another group of 14 victims- origins of the Indian tribe who probably died there a thousand years later—likely in a single event.

Results Raise More Questions than Answers :

Why was a Mediterranean group at Roopkund, and how did they meet their end? Researchers are unaware. Scientinsts have tried to answer all possible sources of genetic ancestries of the Roopkund skeletons but failed to answer why Mediterranean people were travelling to this lake and what they were doing here.
 The lake and its surrounding have been subjected to some catastrophe which led to 'massive casualties'.This must've resulted in accumulation of skeletons in bulk at Roopkund lake. Roopkund's strangeness has unnerved even professionals. For decades now, scholars have been trying to figure out who the men and women at Roopkund were and when and how did they die.

A Systematic Study :

The international team of researchers performed genomic analyses of the Roopkund remains. The team didn't have concrete evidence for who these people at Roopkund might have been, but traits of Mediterranean ancestry high in the Indian Himalaya came as a surprise.

Ever since the project has been going on, minimal discoveries were made and then left dormant. Restarted this study during his postdoctoral studies in 2014 since there was an advancement in technology, more so in the field of retraction of ancient DNA.Thus gathered interest in the study again. Researchers have plans to unravel further Roopkund's mysteries: said that next year, another expedition would visit the lake to study artefacts associated with the skeletons.