Since the early age of civilisation, poisonous substances have been reported to be adversely affecting human life, both in terms of morbidity and mortality. With advancement in the field of agriculture, industry etc. has made wide and easy availability of various poisonous substances. The present study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Pt. B. D. Sharma Post Graduate Medical Sciences (P.G.I.M.S), Rohtak, Haryana, from 1st January 2016 to 31st December 2016 to know the trends of poisoning in the tertiary care centre based on Medico-legal autopsy records conducted in the Departmental Mortuary. The cases were then analysed on various parameters to find the trends and other significant feature of poisoning in this region of Haryana. There were 224 (77%) male and 68 (23%) female victims involved in this study and maximum cases belonged to second and third decade of life (22.94% and 42.46% respectively).Most incidences of poisoning occurred in the month of August (14.04%) followed by May (13.01%). Most of the victims belonged to rural areas (66.09%) belonging to agriculture by profession (28.08%) and lower Socio-economic condition (58.56%). Most common manner of poisoning was suicidal (56.50%) and maximum incidences took place at home (64.72%). Aluminium phosphide was the leading cause of poisoning (35.27%) followed by insecticides (32.19%). Maximum suicides were reported with aluminium phosphide (61.21%) and accidental poisoning with insecticides (44.09%). In our study pattern of poisoning corresponds with the pattern found in most other studies. The study that, a holistic approach for controlled use and distribution of agricultural pesticides, establishment of poison information centres, availability of antidotes in rural area, creating awareness among people and Psychological counselling of young adults can help effectively to resolve the problem.
