A Medicolegal Examination of Drowning Deaths - A Retrospective Study

India is a vast country having plenty of water bodies i. e. Rivers, ponds, wells and an extensive sea coast. So drowning is one of the most common causes of death among all manners of death in this country. This was a 2 year retrospective autopsy study of deaths due to drowning cases analyzed and tabulated. Study performed in department of Forensic Medicine& Toxicology at KIMS, Hubballi from January 2014 to December 2015. We studied total 23 cases in two years, the maximum drowning cases were of male sex -14 (60.86 %), with commonest age group being 11-20 years - 06 cases (26.08 %). Most of the drowning cases were accidental in nature 13 (56.52 %) and occurred commonly in lakes and rivers 15 (62.51 %). The most significant postmortem findings noted on autopsy were bleaching of skin 19 (82.60 %) and presence of water in stomach in 13 cases (56.52 %).