It was a passing out ceremony at Bhopal’s 23rd Battalion of Special Armed Forces academy with a difference. Not a single policeman was there in the contingent but five German Shepherd dogs — who have been trained to sniff out illegal wildlife products — and their handlers. They graduated from the academy after nine-month training on Thursday.
The dogs will be specially used to detect hidden wildlife articles like tiger bone and skin, leopard bone and skin and bear bile. Two each would join the Forest departments of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand and one would go to Maharashtra.
This happens to be the second phase of training of sniffer dogs. Initially, two dogs and their handlers had been trained at the National Dog Training Centre, ITBP, Panchkula. Of them, one each was deployed by the Forest departments of Haryana and Uttarakhand.
The procurement of dogs and training programmes were funded and facilitated by Traffic India, (national chapter of Traffic), and a programme division of WWF-India.
According to Samir Sinha, head, Traffic India, illegal wildlife trade has evolved into an organised transnational activity threatening the survival of many species in India. In order to curb this growing menace it is necessary to deploy the best enforcement practices available, including the use of sniffer dogs, which have a proven track record in detecting crime and serving as long-term deterrents.
Khalid Pasha, coordinator, Traffic India, pointed out that the success story of the project in Europe had inspired its introduction in the South Asian region. In India too, the initial results are encouraging.
The effort would help Forest departments to effectively search bus terminuses, railway stations and airports from where wildlife articles are smuggled out. “Apart from sniffing out the products from boxes and human bodies they could also detect products buried in earth,” he added.
The efficacy of the dogs was recently proved in the Rajaji National Park when they managed to track down very small quantity of snake skin being carried in a suitcase.
Experts said poaching is on the rise in Uttarakhand. For instance, poachers are active in Haridwar, Pithoragarh, Bageshwari and Ranikhet. Besides, Lodha Basti of Samalkha village in Haryana is a hub of poachers. Animal skins, including those of tiger, leopard and Indian otter, bile of bears have been seized from Samalkha during the recent years. These products find a ready market in China for their use in medicines. The dogs could come handy to prevent the smuggling of these wildlife products.
Aditya Dubey, Commandant, 23rd Battalion, said, “Illegal wildlife trade is a serious issue and needs to be curbed. We are glad that our expertise in training dogs for crime detection will contribute towards helping combat wildlife crime.”
http://www.dailypioneer.com/272732/Dogs-add-teeth-to-anti-poaching-drive.html
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