DNA samples of over 7,000 armed forces personnel, who are considered to be “at the highest risk of death”, have been collected and stored at the DNA profiling centre and repository in the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune. Part of an ambitious project of the Armed Forces Medical Services to develop a repository of 11,30,000 armed forces personnel, the exercise has already helped establish the identity of Indian Air Force personnel killed in two separate air crashes last year.
Lieutenant General Bipin Puri, Director General, Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS), said the stored DNA samples were used to identify the mortal remains of defence personnel during the SU 30 MKI aircraft crash on May 23 last year.
Read more of this in a report by Anuradha Mascarenhas published in The Indian Express...
