Dog squads are fast emerging as the most trusted sentinels for wildlife protection across the country. The respective Forest Departments are increasingly inducting dogs to fight illegal trade especially in protected areas.
According to TRAFFIC INDIA, that provides trained dog squads to the Forest Departments in the country, Madhya Pradesh has the maximum number of five dog squads, and it has asked for three more.
Tamil Nadu will soon have squads in its tiger reserves, including Anamalai and Mudumalai in the Nilgiris. Assam, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Jharkhand and Karnataka have also deputed dog squads to check poaching of tigers, elephants, one-horned Asian rhino amongst others.
The training of the select dogs begin at the age of 15 months. Initially, German shepherds were used in the training, but from next year Belgium Shepherds will also be inducted, said Shekhar Kumar Niraj, Head of Traffic India. To begin with the dogs are trained to detect wildlife trophies, poached animals, derivatives and body parts. The basic training remains the same as in case of usual dog training beginning with obedience training and bonding with the handler. These exercises take a couple of months, after which they go into the specialisation mode.
Next they are introduced to original skins, bones, claw of wildlife, carapace of tortoises. It takes about a month for the dogs to get acquainted with the smell of these materials. Next the dogs are taught on how to dig out such from a pit.
This goes on for nearly three months. Then comes tracking the trail, said a TRAFFIC official. After completing the training, the dogs are put forward to demonstrate their skills before experts who judge them before clearing them for the passing out parade.