Footprints can tell about body size

Chandigarh: A research conducted by Dr. Kewal Krishan, Associate Professor and former Chairperson of the Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh and his student Dr. Richa Mukhra has shown that the footprints may give clues about the body size of the person who created these.

The research was conducted by Dr Mukhra, has recently been awarded a PhD on the basis of this research conducted under the guidance of Dr. Krishan.

Now, it has been well established that the footprints and the related evidence recovered from the scene of crime may help the investigating agencies and the police to nab the perpetrators The research has been accepted by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) and Dr. Krishan is going to present the findings in 73rd Annual Scientific conference of the academy to be held through virtual mode from 15-19 February 2021. 

This time, the AAFS has accepted Dr. Krishan’s three research papers for podium presentation. Two other research papers are related to forensic podiatric science (the science related to footprints, gait analysis and footwear analysis and its evidence at the crime scene) which are written in collaboration with the renowned and professional forensic podiatrists of USA, Dr. John DiMaggio and Dr. Michael Nirenberg.

In this research, Dr. Kewal Krishan and Dr. Richa Mukhra have established relationship between the body mass index (BMI) and footprints of a person. BMI is one of the measures of the body size of the person. The findings suggest that the body mass index (BMI) of an individual is directly related to the making of a footprint on the floor. It means, larger the body mass of an individual and larger the area covered by the footprints. Dr. Krishan mentioned that the study was conducted taking three categories of BMI, i.e. Normal range individuals, Pre-obese and Obese individuals. The results of the study indicate that in most of the cases, the individuals with normal range BMI create ‘normal footprints’, however, the obese individuals i.e. high BMI category create ‘flat footprints’. Therefore, the study may be helpful in pinpointing the identification of the criminals from the footprints recovered from the crime scenes. To some extent, the body size of the perpetrators who created the footprints may be known and this may further lead to their proper identification.

Dr. Krishan is a leading and renowned forensic scientist and published more than 246 papers in reputed journals and having more than 13000 citations of his research. His research has been published in the topmost and high impact factors journals of Science and Medicine such the Nature, The Lancet, Nature Medicine. He is recently been included amongst 2% top scientists of the world in the category of Legal and Forensic Medicine with a rank of 32.