Pooch pooch hota hai

Central Railway gets nine furballs for its RPF unit. They will keep you safe, because...
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Central Railway’s Mumbai division has received a boost with the recruitment of nine new members in its dog squad. The new members are Ranjar, Surya, Snuffy, Bagheera, Simbha, Bond, Raja, Ruddy and Bolt. Of these, Bagheera, a Dobermann, is a tracker and the eight Labradors are sniffers. The puppies have cost the RPF around Rs 25,000 each.
“On July 23, we purchased 14 puppies for Central Railway. All of them are around three months old. Of these, nine will join the RPF unit of Central Railway’s Mumbai division after completion of their training while the remaining five will be given to other divisions of CR – three to Pune division and one each to Nagpur and Bhusawal,” said a senior officer of CR.
The new special canine cops will be inducted into the RPF squad within a year after completion of 32-week training.
Of these 14 puppies, eight are Labrador, five are Belgian Malinois and one is Dobermann. Dobermanns and Labradors will be deployed in the Mumbai division while Belgian Malinois puppies will serve in the Nagpur, Pune and Bhusawal divisions of CR because they need more space to operate. The cost of each Belgian Malinois puppy is Rs 75,000.
Training of these special members will start at the nominated training centres of the Indian Railways after they complete the age of six months. Currently, all are around three months old. These puppies have been kept with their handlers at different dog kennels of Central railway, including at Carnac Bunder, Matunga, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Kalyan.
How are sniffer dogs selected and trained?
Sniffer dogs are used to search or detect explosives or narcotics at railway stations, platforms, trains (Mail/Express/Suburban Services), parcels at all railway premises. Similarly, tracker dogs are utilised for track patrolling, yards, workshops and tracking of anti-social elements or offenders involved in the theft of railway property or passenger crime.

“The process of selecting the genetically fit breed requires the help of experienced veterinary doctors, and a medical follow-up is regularly done by them,” said a senior official of CR.
He said that these puppies were purchased through a spot purchase committee as replacements for retired dogs. Earlier in 2020, nine dogs had retired from the service of Central Railway’s Mumbai division. This new recruitment includes eight sniffers and one tracker.
Jitendra Shrivastava, chairman of the purchase committee and senior divisional security commissioner of Central Railway’s Mumbai division, said, “Dogs are considered to be the best resource when it comes to creating the actual atmosphere of security with their proven effective utility.”
Currently, Central Railway’s Mumbai division has 28 members, including 21 sniffers and seven trackers, in its squad. With the inclusion of the nine recruits, the squad’s strength will go up to 37.

Tracker dogs are trained to follow scent trails left by fugitives or for scent discrimination that is picking one person out of many, whose scent may be at the scene of a crime. For instance, if a theft has been committed and there are several suspects, the dog can sniff out the perpetrator from an article that provides a reference scent from the scene of the crime. While following the scent trail of a fugitive, if the dog comes across the target, it will latch on to it and not release it until commanded by its handler.
Similarly, sniffer dogs are trained to sniff out different types of explosives such as RDX, TNT, ammonium nitrate, Semtex, nitroglycerin, PETN, dynamite, nitrocellulose, black powder and potassium chlorate. Such dogs are deployed with bomb detection and disposal squads, for VIP security or for bomb sweeps of venues where people are to gather. On detecting explosives, the dogs give their handlers silent cues, to avoid alerting any suspects in the vicinity or to avoid setting off sound-triggered explosive devices. Apart from that, sniffer dogs are also trained to sniff out different narcotic and psychotropic substances, including marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, MDMA and PCP or phencyclidine.