A study of fingerprint ridge density in a Rajput population of Shimla and Solan districts of Himachal Pradesh forensic and anthropological aspects

Abstract

This research is significant in terms anthropological perspective as it would provide a purpose to study the ridge count within these areas and the prints obtained would be helpful in evaluating the ridge width. The difference that will be obtained would be analyzed to study the individual as well as population variability. There is a need of the present study in terms of forensics also which would create a database pertaining to the fingerprint ridge density in a Himachal Pradesh population which may strength the method of determination of sex from the fingerprint available after crime scene. With this, the load of the officers or agencies, investigating the case would be reduced to half and the investigation is directed towards one direction i.e. either towards male suspect or the female suspect. newlineOne of the core criteria of biological anthropology is to study spatial and temporal variation in human populations in its past, present and to some extent in its future. Many studies based on genetic polymorphism, blood polymorphism, body morphology, anthropometry and fingerprint variation have been conducted throughout the world, which helped the scientists to understand the biological variations and to classify populations in different biological races. In terms of biological anthropology, the present study will provide an insight in to the sexual dimorphism reflected in the fingerprint ridge density in one of the Himalayan population. newline newline