Forest dept to introduce 4 new dogs in fleet to help control wildlife crimes

Kolkata: The state Forest department will soon introduce four new dogs in its fleet for more effective tracking and control of wildlife crime in the state.

The new dogs, presently being trained at National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD), BSF Academy, Tekanpur in Gwalior, will add to the existing team of six dogs in the department's fleet.

"We had introduced six dogs as part of our forest team two years ago in a programme that was held at Banabitan in Salt Lake. We will soon introduce four new members. The first one will be sent to Gorumara National Park at Dooars in Jalpaiguri, the second to Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar, the third to Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in Darjeeling and the fourth one named Shyana to Sunderbans in South 24-Parganas," said a senior official of the state Forest department.

If everything goes as per plan then the four dogs will be joining the department in March.

Orlando, a Belgian Malinois who has already been declared among the best during training, will be introduced at Gorumara.

Among the six dogs that are presently in the team of the Forest deparment, 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 wildlife crime. They have bagged awards as well.

"The dogs of our department need training 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 added.

It may be mentioned that the state Forest department had sent samples of everything seized from the Bengal forests like rhino horn, elephant tusk, pangolin scale, mongoose hair etc. to Gwalior, so that when the dogs get trained they acquire a practical experience of poaching activities in the state.

The official shared an incident to explain the level of expertise that these dogs possess. A year ago, forest guards accompanied by Karim had seen some poachers cutting meat off a byson that they had killed at Gorumara. However, the offenders managed to flee from the spot.

It was Karim who sniffed the way through the forest and tracked their hideout. Most interestingly, the dog 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.

"This is only a single incident. There are many more when these dogs have played key roles in catching poachers and preventing wildlife crimes," said the official.