Rupkund: The deadly lake (Part VII) - The Historical Background

Though Dr. T.S. Longstaff discovered Rupkund incidentally in 1905, he didn't mention Rupkund in any of his books. A forest dept. employee(name not available), in 1925 came here with Nandajat and brought it into light. In 1942 another forest dept staff, Madhoal Singh, discussed about Rupkund in details.On the basis of his report, the then deputy commissioner of Kumayun , Mr. Vernid, invited famous rock climber Mr. Hamilton from Scotland. This gentleman first brought Rupkund to the lime light. In 1955 Madhoal Singh came here with Govt. patronage, collected several anthropological specimens and handed over to the head of the dept. of anthropology of Lucknow University , Dr. D. N. Majumder.In 1956, under the supervision of Dr. Nagendra Dutta Majumder, an excavation was conducted and again some specimen were collected and researches were carried on. The outcome of these researches was, the fossils were 800 to 500 years old. The structure of the skull being very similar to that of the local people, the dead bodies were declared as of the soldiers of Md. Bin Tughlak But according to Swami Pranabananda, , as several materials like Rudraksh, bell etc were found with those bodies, the bodies can not be of Muslim soldiers, they must be Hindu pilgrims.

A very recent study, conducted by National Geographic Society and a German organisation revealed that the dead bodies are surely of some Hindu Pilgrims, who probably were taking part in Nandajat. According to their research, they died due to severe hail storm.