GUWAHATI, July 11: A human skull was found inside garbage at a municipal dumping site in Jorhat district on July 10. Police have started an investigation to check if biomedical waste rules were violated.

How It Was Found

Sanitation workers spotted the skull while unloading waste from a garbage truck. They immediately informed the police and district officials. A Circle Officer also visited the site after receiving the information.

A municipal staff member said the skull was found in one of their collection vehicles.

“A wire was tied to the skull and ‘B4’ was written on it. It looks like it may have been used for medical study or teaching and was mistakenly thrown into the garbage,” he said.

Police have taken the skull into custody. They are now focusing on the wire and the “B4” marking. Officials believe it could be an anatomical specimen used in a medical college or for research.

Under the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, human body parts or anatomical waste from hospitals and medical colleges cannot be dumped with regular garbage. It has to be sent to authorised treatment centres.

Authorities are now trying to find out where the skull came from and which hospital or institute may have thrown it away. No hospital or institution has been named so far.