Forensic Investigation of Diatoms in Southern Region of Himachal Pradesh(India)

Abstract

Diatoms are one of the most common organisms that exist on this earth. Diatoms are a group of unicellular algae that have been recorded and classified for over 200 years and have been used in a range of applications in forensic science. A body recovered from the water does not necessarily imply that death was due to drowning. If the person is still alive when entering the water, diatoms will enter the lungs if the person inhales water and drowns. The diatoms are then carried to distant parts of the body such as the brain, kidneys, lungs and bone marrow by circulation. If the person is dead when entering the water, then there is no circulation and the transport of diatom cells to various organs is prevented because of a lack of circulation and diatoms cannot enter the body. Their presence, matching and evaluation helps in distinguishing between an ante-mortem drowning (live person submerged in the water) and post-mortem drowning (a dead body was submerged in water) i.e. whether the body entered the water source before death or was it put in a water source after death. This article deals with the study of diatoms which are collected from the fresh water sources of southern regions of Himachal Pradesh of India. The control samples of diatoms were collected from fresh water of different water sources. The diatoms extracted from the body of the deceased were compared with the diatoms that were extracted from the control samples to determine the cause of death.