Indigenous dogs may prove to be effective back up to detect explosives in Naxal regions
It is common perception that our indigenous dog breed is simply not up to the job when it comes to being part of the bomb disposal squad in the security forces. But the Central Reserve Police Force or CRPF jawans in Kondagaon area of Chhattisgarh's Bastar have proved this notion to be wrong. As an experiment, the CRPF 188 battalion camp has trained two indigenous dogs - Gullu and Rocky - to detect bombs.
The camp had a Belgian Shepherd and a German Shepherd in their dog squad who accompanied their teams for road opening and search operation in the Naxal infested jungles in the Bastar region where Naxals on a regular basis plant explosives targeting security forces. But at times the dogs got injured and the jawans had no dogs to detect explosives for the next day. So the dog handlers of the camp trained Gullu and Rocky. While they have proved to be an effective alternative to the foreign dogs in the squad, training them was an uphill task.
CRPF's dog handler Narsingh Kumar says, "These are India dogs, training them is not easy. They are slow learners. They aren't able to match their foreign counterparts as their smelling capacity is less. But after training they are effective on the ground."
Indigenous dogs may not be inducted in the forces already, but are effective back up to detect explosives in the Naxal region. The Indian dogs in some ways also have an edge over foreign breed dogs as they adapt better to the climate and are low maintenance.
Sandeep, Deputy Commandant CRPF 188 battalion, told NDTV, "Our German Shepherds sometimes got injured on field and in such situation we had no dog for the next day's duty so we trained the Indian breed dogs. These dogs are more agile and have more physical capacity. Foreign breed dogs need rest time to time."
Gullu and Rocky, by showing their capabilities in the bomb disposal squad of the CRPF, have in a way opened the doors of the security forces for the Indian breed dogs as many officials are now considering Indian breed dogs into the security forces as backup.