Sixteen trained wildlife sniffer dogs passed out from their academy on Wednesday to join the “illustrious” dog squad forces deployed in the country for fighting wildlife crime and curbing illegal wildlife trade.
The dogs are the fifth batch of sniffer dogs trained under TRAFFIC India’s sniffer dog training programme and will join their 25 counterparts already deployed across the country.
The present fifth phase of TRAFFIC India’s wildlife sniffer dog training programme began in January 2016 at National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD), BSF Academy, Tekanpur Gwalior, with 16 young dogs and 32 handlers of seven participating states of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Since then the dogs and their handlers have gone through a rigorous nine month long training regime to learn and develop skills for detecting wildlife crime, conducting wildlife seizures and nabbing poachers.
The dogs graduated at a passing out ceremony organised at the dog training center in Gwalior alongside a passing out parade displaying skills learned for curbing wildlife crime. The programme commenced in 2008 as a strategic alliance between TRAFFIC — India and IUCN.
Dr. Shekhar Kumar Niraj, Head of TRAFFIC — India, said the new batch of sniffer dog squads will take its total strength to 41 across India. With this, the sniffer dog squads will now be present in 13 States, including all the four States of South India.