The owing to the decomposition of dead bodies, the identification, cause of death and time since death of a dead body becomes very difficult or may even impossible.[1-3] So in order to outcome this problem, present study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine at P.D.U. Medical College, RAJKOT (Gujarat) from 1st September 2009 to 15th May 2011 on dead bodies brought to the mortuary of this institution. During that period out of total 4034 dead bodies, 100 dead bodies showing the signs of decomposition were received for the present study which accounts 2.47% deaths. Identity was established in 71% cases while 29% cases remained unidentified. In majority of cases (68%) cause of death was unnatural while in 6% cases cause of death was natural. No cause of death could be detected in 26% cases. In 52% cases, time since death was1--3 days followed by 29% cases in which time since death was 3-7 days. 

Keywords: Decomposition; Identification; Cause of death; Time since death.