Wayanad 08 - No Names, Just Numbers Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

Thirtyone bodies
of those succumbed
to the nature's fury
were not identified
because there was no one left
in their family and relatives
to identify them and take
poessession of the bodies
to conduct the last rights.

Parts of one hundred eighty four bodies
in small shards and fragments
were not identified too, though
two hundred odd were still missing.

DNA samples of all these
have been collected and saved,
to be verified with the relatives
of the people reported missing.

Government arranged land to bury
the bodies and parts in individual graves
so that, if identified later,
relatives may pay obeisance;

each of the epitaphs carried
just a number, no name
to identify the occupant
of the grave, what ignominy!