AIM: To analyse the various causes of red eye among patients attending a tertiary hospital in Puducherry METHODS : A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in patients who presented to the out patient department with complaints of redness of eyes of acute onset . Out of the 10,860 patients who had registered, the clinical records of 1620 patients with complaints of red eye were retrieved and analysed using MS office Excel sheet RESULT: Out of the 1620 patients,1080 were adults and 540 were of the paediatric age group (<12years).There were 720 males and 360 females in the adult population . The most common cause of red eye in adults and paediatric population was found to be conjunctivitis,32% and 62% respectively . The next common cause of red eye in the adults was to be foreign bodies (21%) followed by trauma (19%).However in the paediatric population , inflammatory conditions of the lids like hordeolum internum and hordeolum externum (18%) and trauma (14%) were found to be the common causes . CONCLUSION : Conjunctivitis accounts for the most common cause of red eye . While infective conjunctivitis was more common in adults(70%), allergic conjunctivitis was found to be more common among children (59 %) .Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of these conditions ,can prevent patients from developing vision threatening complications .