author(s)
Kritika Singh, Nidhi Rajput, KP Singh, KK Jadav, Rita Bhandari and Jayshree Sharma

abstract
Royal Bengal Tiger comes under flagship species that focused for wildlife conservation programme in Indian subcontinents owing to their uncompromised habit and habitats. Though the entomological tools has been using since ancient past for homicidal cases but it could not be applied ever for investigation of wildlife crime pertaining to evidence collection for prosecution and conviction of poachers. Most often carcass of free ranging tigers in the protected or unprotected forest areas being locates under badly putrefied or decomposed stages. Thus identification of carcass needs alternative techniques instead of conventional pathological examinations to collect the facts behind the crime scene. During study period, carcasses of tiger of Kanha Tiger Reserve and Pench Tiger Reserve were examined carefully with the assistance of forests officers and veterinary physicians. The biological samples were collected for assessment of postmortem intervals by following standard protocols. The maggots (8-10) from individual carcass were dissected with the help of scalpel under stereoscopic microscope and teguments of the maggots were separated in sterilized container. From each sample DNA was extracted using DNeasy Blood and Tissue kit and amplified for the Cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene using commercially available specific primers. The PCR products were sequenced unidirectional and the sequence were identified using nucleotide BLAST by NCBI. The occurrence of Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) in both carcasses of tigers envisaged that blow flies of Chrysomya spp. attract earlier towards carcasses and lay eggs around orifices of the animal. The results emphasized the strength of forensic entomology not only for species identification of the blowflies but also useful for knowing the succession waves of forensically important insects in and around the protected forest areas.