Roopkund, the Lake of Skeletons
When the snow melts each summer, a small Himalayan lake shows hundreds of human bones along its edges.
What was reported
Roopkund is a glacial lake about 5,000 metres up, on the trekking route to Trishul in Uttarakhand. In 1942 a forest ranger, H. K. Madhwal, reported human skeletons in and around it, and for years the lake was assumed to hold the remains of a lost army or a stranded group of travellers.
Local songs tell of pilgrims on the Nanda Devi yatra who angered the goddess, and of a storm of hailstones 'as hard as iron' that fell on them. The remains are still visible in summer, though many have been carried off by visitors.
Explanations offered
A 2004 study dated some of the bones to around the 9th century and linked head injuries to large hailstones, which fits the old song. A 2019 genetic study then found the remains belong to at least three separate groups, including people of eastern Mediterranean ancestry who died around 1800, so the lake holds several events, not one. How the later group came to be there is still not known.
- When
- Found in 1942; remains about 1,200 years old
- Where
- Chamoli, Uttarakhand, India
- Witnesses
- A forest ranger, then trekkers and scientists
- Status
- Partly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.