In a first, NDRF trains 160 dogs for disaster response

New Delhi, February 7

In a maiden initiative, a squad of 162 dogs is being raised by the NDRF to aid its personnel in rescuing people trapped under debris in the aftermath of natural calamities like earthquake.

The NDRF, which was involved in disaster rescue operations like the deluge in Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Chennai and the earthquake that struck Nepal last year, has undertaken the exercise on a ‘mission mode’.

The force is training a batch of 162 dogs for their specialised Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) tasks, under which the NDRF teams have to sift through mounds of rubble to look for life trapped beneath.

A number of them have finished their regime and are being subjected to drills and field exercises where they are made to sniff out life in a collapsed concrete structure.

“We have undertaken an exercise to train special USAR dogs as they are the best companion of a rescuer during such challenges. This is the first time that dogs for disaster response are being trained on such a large scale indigenously.

“These canines are different from the regular police and tracker dogs and have immense capabilities in sniffing life from under the debris,” NDRF Director-General OP Singh said.

As the requirements of the National Disaster Response Force in this domain are large, the DG said, the force has taken upon itself to train this special class of dogs, a task being done in India for the first time.

“There have been instances during our operations in the past when dogs proved that they are multiple times better than human rescuers due to their inherent special skills. That is when we decided to train our own dogs and hone their capabilities as part of a comprehensive exercise,” he said.

Keeping in mind the importance of canines in disaster rescue, the NDRF has sanctioned a minimum of 17 dogs in each of its twelve operational battalions based in various parts of the country.

The force initially got trained its dogs by the experts of the Swiss Development Corporation under the acclaimed International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) guidelines but now it has got a pool of master trainers for the job.

NDRF experts say the dogs’ capability to sniff life buried under the rubble is marvellous and the canines are now being trained to achieve the finesse and precision in this task.

The force has earmarked five locations for the training of these dogs, Labradors and German Shepherds.

“For a good disaster search canine, skills like quick follow up of command, agility, a focused bark alert to indicate life and a willingness to persist to search for live victims in spite of possible extreme temperatures and distractions of various other odours in the atmosphere and noise, are a must.

“No technology, till date, is better than a trained USAR dog with his handler looking for life in a collapsed structure post an earthquake,” a senior official said.

In order to sustain the intake and training of these special class of four-legged rescuers, the force has also decided to start their in-house breeding rather than procuring pups from the market. — PTI