Forest department to induct two new canines

Kolkata: Two new dogs will soon be inducted in the fleet of the state Forest department for more effective tracking and control of wildlife crime in the state. The two malachite variety that reached the city on Sunday night after completing their training at National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD, BSF Academy, Tekanpur in Gwalior will be working at Sunderbans and Gorumara.

Ravikant Sinha, state Chief Wildlife Warden said that the dog named Shyana will be deployed at Sunderbans while Orlando will be working at Gorumara.

"Another two dogs are expected to join our fleet by the end of this month. They will be posted at Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar, and at Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in Darjeeling," said a senior official of the state Forest department.

Presently there are six dogs in the team of the Forest department. Among them - Karim, a Belgian Malinois and Ikna a German Shepherd have recently figured among the top five dogs of the country when it comes to tackling of wildlife crime and had bagged awards.

"The dogs in our department are specially trained in sniffing and tracking. They are very effective in sniffing out tiger and leopard skins, elephant tusks, deer skins or hides and similar articles that are associated with illegal wildlife trade," the official maintained.

It may be mentioned that the state Forest department sent samples of everything that are seized from the Bengal forests like rhino horn, elephant tusk, pangolin scale, mongoose hair etc to Gwalior so that the dogs when they are trained have a practical experience of poaching activities in the state and this helps them in gaining real life experience of their roles.

The official sharing an incident said that a year ago, forest guards accompanied by Karim had seen some poachers cutting meat of a byson that they had killed at Gorumara, however, the offenders managed to flee away from the spot.

It was Karim who sniffed the way through the forest and tracked their hideout. Most interestingly, Karim sniffed the bullet that killed the animal after it was taken out of its body and tracked the gun that was used to fire the bullet.