Thirteen tetranucleotide and 2 pentanucleotide repeat units were analyzed in 167 unrelated Kannada-speaking individuals belonging to 3 important communities, namely, Kuruva, Bhovi, and Christians, residing in different districts of Karnataka, India. Allele frequency data obtained from the analysis of 15 short tandem report (STR) markers of the subpopulation groups included in the study were observed to be similar, indicating a common ancestry or gene flow among these communities. Departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed in Kuruva population at locus D5S818 and D18S51 and at locus CSF1PO in the Christian community. The data of these communities were analyzed with allele frequency data of 4 other populations from Karnataka, India-Iyengar Brahmin, Gowda, Lingayat, and Muslim-to compute the combined power of discrimination, ranged from 0.962 to 0.974, with negligible difference between populations. The combined power of exclusion, however, remained constant at 0.999 for all populations evaluated in the study. Thus, the 15 markers selected for this study were found to be highly suitable in human identification and for providing information on genetic polymorphism.