Overview
- Official DNA testing by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police has confirmed that the long‑known corpse nicknamed “Green Boots” is Lance Naik Dorje Morup, who died in the May 10, 1996 Everest storm.
- The ITBP has begun hiring experienced high‑altitude recovery specialists through a formal tender that requires teams with multiple summit‑season Sherpas and prior recovery experience.
- Morup’s body lies in a small limestone alcove on Everest’s northeast ridge at roughly 8,500 metres on the Tibetan side, so any recovery will need approval from Chinese authorities before it can proceed.
- Retrieval work will be technically extreme because the site sits in the death zone above 8,000 metres where helicopter access is impossible, frozen remains are heavier, and teams must cut and carry bodies down steep, exposed terrain.
- If permission and weather align India aims to complete the operation and repatriation by around October 2026, a move that would allow family rites and correct a decades‑long public misidentification of the body.