32 canines in ER’s RPF dog squad

Kolkata: Eastern Railway's Railway Protection Force (RPF), has teams of well-trained sniffer, tracker, and Narcotic dogs as part of its Dog Squad.There are 32 Canines in Eastern Railway's Railway Protection Force. Out of the total, there are 13 in Howrah Division, eight in Sealdah Division, five in Asansol and six in Malda Division.

Out of these 32 canines, 23 are sniffers deployed for detection of bombs and wildlife, seven are tracker deployed for crime investigation and two as narcotic detectors who are deployed for detection of smuggling cases.

Cooper, Ruffel, Oliver, Zino, Duke, Badsah, Misti, Krish, Romeo, Paddy, Oreo, Jack, Alex are some of the these dogs in the squad who have helped in detection of narcotics, wildlife and have played an important role in not only aiding security personnel but also solving many criminal cases.

Most of these 'Canine Heros' are Labradors, German Shepherd (sniffer) and Doberman and Belgian Malinois Shepherd (tracker). RPF Dogs are generally used for Anti-Sabotage checking, frisking of parcels, luggages, suspicious (unattended) baggage etc.

Dog ‘Badsah’ of RPF's Dog Squad in Howrah Division had assisted in detection of Foreign Cigarette Cases worth Rs 10,26,000/- with the arrest of one smuggler in the year 2022. In another case, dog ‘Misti’ of Howrah helped in detection of marijuana worth Rs 6,90,000/- with one arrest and dog ‘Cooper’ of Howrah tracked and rescued 50 tortoises from Howrah Railway Station. On the other hand, dog ‘Alex’ has played a vital role in the investigation of a murder case and helped in the arrest of prime accused identified as Chotu Kumar.

These dogs are housed and trained at special kennels situated at RPF Dog Training Squad at Dayabasti in New Delhi, K-9 Training Center in Pune, RPF, Training Center at Podanur in Tamil Nadu and BSF Training Center at Tekanpur in Gwalior and handled by trained team of RPF dog handlers.

These canines are given ranks and promotion on the basis of their achievements and performance. "Dogs provide a viable and effective alternative to technology. Sniffer dogs, owing to their natural sniffing capabilities, have been successful in detecting explosives. Moreover, certain breeds of dogs can also track down the accused suspects in real time based on their power of sniffing. A single search and rescue dog can accomplish the work of 20-30 human searchers," the ER authorities said.

Not only this, these super dogs of Eastern Railway have also proven their mettle outside Railways when they have been called upon by the State Government to help

solve crimes.