4 sniffer dogs to nose around for wildlife crimes in Bengal

Kolkata: A Belgian Malinois, the same breed that had helped the SEAL team in tracking Osama bin Laden, will trudge through the muddy terrains of the Sunderbans to detect wildlife crimes. This is the first time a sniffer dog is being used in the buffer zone of the Sunderbans that has posted a healthy number in the recently-concluded tiger number-estimation exercise in the mangroves.The zone, also known as South 24 Parganas forest division, had reported a big cat poaching last year.
Three more dogs — two Belgian Malinois and a German Shepherd — will also be pressed into service in Gorumara, Jaldapara and Buxa in north Bengal. They have graduated from Gwalior dog training academy. Two of them will be handed over to the forest department by June 20.
Talking to TOI, state’s chief wildlife warden Ravi Kant Sinha said that they would be joining the service soon. “While two of the dogs, both Belgian Malinois, have been provided by NGO Saving Tiger Society, the other two by the international wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. While the former will join the department in South 24 Parganas forest division and north Bengal’s Gorumara, the other two will be pressed into service in Jaldapara and Buxa, both in north Bengal,” added Sinha.
The department had first procured a sniffer dog in 2016 — Rani, a German Shepherd, who is in Jaldapara now. In 2017, the department got three more dogs — two German Shepherds for the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve and Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and a Belgian Malinois for Buxa Tiger Reserve.
Indrajit Sengupta of Saving Tiger Society said that the two dogs — Orlando and Shyana — that they are providing have already graduated from the National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD), BSF Academy, Gwalior. “They are aged around one year three months now. They had started undergoing training at the age of six months and the training continued for nine months. They were trained in tracking, sniffing and guarding. If all goes well, we will hand over the dogs to the department this week,” said Sengupta, adding that while Orlando will head to Gorumara, Shyana will join the department in South 24 Parganas forest division, major parts of which cover the buffer area of the Sunderbans.
Sengupta said that two department staff — a main handler and an assistant handler — have also been trained with each dog. A dog and two handlers form one dog squad. “Till now, we have 17 such dog squads. And, this is the first time that we are sending dogs to Bengal. Earlier, we had sent such sniffer dogs to Madhya Pradesh. We also have plans to send two sniffer dogs to Chhattisgarh government and one to Chitwan National Park in Nepal,” added Sengupta.
Sinha added that the department plans to keep at least two sniffer dogs in prime forest areas of the state.