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Morphological identification of the immature stages of blow flies is difficult especially when only fragmented specimens are found. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) gene sequence data coupled with its phylogenetic analysis are a quick technique in such cases. Hence, the partial sequence of this gene followed by its parsimony analysis was tested for the identification of two species of Chrysomya, i.e. C. rufifacies (Macquart) and C. megacephala (Fabricius) commonly found associated with cadavers from India. An attempt has also been made to assess the intraspecific and geographical variations. The intraspecific variation was found to be ,1% for the C. megacephala samples but not so in C. rufifacies. These two species were found to be monophyletic and were correctly identified. The 480 bp COI region was found to be good enough to distinguish these.

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Most often the newspapers and bulletin come out with voluminous cases of deaths due to drowning. At the same time an ample section of such cases encompass entomological evidences, that can be scrutinized as a very useful parameter in estimating post mortem interval (PMI). This research database is an outcome of a 2 years reflective study, based on an assessment of records related to human deaths due to drowning. The drowned bodies from various districts of Haryana are sent to PGIMS (Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences), Rohtak. The study took the data of year 2015–2016 into consideration. All the cases were reviewed and summarized in terms of monthly occurrence of total cases, age differentiation, gender differentiation and month wise occurrence of entomological evidences on the dead bodies through detailed study of post mortem findings. This data will lead to an insight into the magnitude of drowning deaths in Haryana along with the usage of entomological data for determining Post Mortem Submersion Intervals (PMSI).

Investigating drowning‐related deaths remains a significant problem for forensic personnel all over the world. The previously published decomposition scoring method like the total aquatic decomposition (TAD) score promises to estimate the correct post‐mortem submersion interval (PMSI) in aquatic habitats through the assessment and calculation of the decomposition rate and accumulated degree days (ADD). The current study comprised of 53 drowned death cases belonging to various districts of Haryana from May 2016 to August 2017. The regression and Pearson's correlation indicated a significant correlation between the TAD scores and the actual ADD (calculated through water temperatures) (r2 = 0.917) and between the actual and the estimated ADDs (calculated through TAD scores used by Heaton et al. [21]) (r = 0.9585). The results indicated that the estimated ADD tends to over predict the PMSI compared to the actual ADD. It is further confirmed by paired t‐test, which showed the mean of actual ADD (mean = 349) to be significantly lower than the mean of estimated ADD (mean = 663). Moreover, these methods will help forensic investigators and researchers formulate region‐specific regression equations for PMSI estimation.

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