Ahead of the first anniversary of horrendous flash floods which claimed thousands of lives in Uttarakhand, authorities recovered 17 more skeletal remains and cremated them in Kedar valley.

Rudraprayag Superintendent of Police Barindrajit Singh said 17 skeletal remains were recovered from Junglechatti area on way to Kedarnath shrine yesterday.

"These were cremated after DNA sampling and other formalities," he said.

The total number of skeletal remains found and disposed of in the area during combing operations resumed recently had gone up to 35, the SP said.

The Uttarakhand government had constituted a special task force to conduct intensive combing operations in the forests adjoining Kedarnath in search of bodies.

IGP Sanjay Gunjyal will be in-charge of the task force which will conduct combing operations over the next 20 days.

Cloudbursts and resultant flash floods on June 16-17 last year wrought widespread havoc in the hill state.