India’s wildlife sniffer dog force expands as six pups begin training at Chandigarh's ITBP centre

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, September 13

India’s wildlife sniffer dog force is expanding with six new pups beginning their training at Indo-Tibetan Border Police’s National Training Center for Dogs (NCTD) at Bhanu near Chandigarh.

Trained under Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) and World Wildlife Fund — India’s programme, wildlife sniffer dogs are used to detect and check illegal trade of wildlife items such as animal skins, fur, bones, horns, tusks, etc.

The six young German Shepherds, between six and nine months old, and their 12 handlers have begun their seven-month course. On completion of training, they will join the forest departments of Karnataka, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

According to an ITBP spokesperson, this is the tenth batch of wildlife sniffer dogs to be trained at Bhanu. This will take the total number of dogs trained under TRAFFIC and WWF to 94.

The illegal wildlife trade has endangered the existence of many wild species across the globe. In India, it includes an array of wildlife products and derivatives such as mongoose hair, snake skins, rhino horn, tiger and leopard parts, elephant tusks, shahtoosh shawl, pangolin scales and much more. The use of wildlife sniffer dogs for wildlife crime prevention and detection is claimed to be a game changer in India.

“The training programme for wildlife sniffer dog squads has been carefully designed to accommodate both basic obedience and detection skills specifically for the wildlife trade,” Ishwar Singh Duhan, Inspector General ITBP and Director NTCD, said.

“The dogs are being trained using the latest training tools to master sniffing and tracking skills for the scent of various wildlife products. Training is being scientifically conducted using modern conditioning techniques, and the dogs will be exposed to various real-life search scenarios in populated and forest areas.” he added.

“Using detection dogs in law enforcement is a proven practice as dogs are competent in combating crimes of varied nature because of their agility and excellent olfactory senses. TRAFFIC and WWF-India’s wildlife sniffer dogs, popularly known as Super Sniffers, play a crucial role in detecting and curbing illegal wildlife trade in India,” said Ravi Singh, Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer, WWF-India.

“With just two wildlife sniffer dog squads in 2008, our programme has successfully trained 88 dogs, and now six more are under training. 21 states and union territories have participated in this programme and have deployed trained sniffer dog squads to fight against wildlife crime,” added Dr Merwyn Fernandes, Coordinator, TRAFFIC’s India office.