Bhopal dog squad being trained to curb poaching

Bhopal, June 9 (ANI): Forest officials of Madhya Pradesh in collaboration with the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network are training five sniffer dogs to track down poachers.

The initiative has been taken for the first time in the country in view of declining tiger population.

The dogs are of German shepherd breed.

They are being trained to search hides and bones of animals particularly tigers through smell.

"We are training these dogs to curb tiger casualty and killings by the poachers and smuggling the skin. They keep it (animal parts) in their house or bury it in ground and keep in suitcase or luggage, "said Lal Bahadur Thapa, chief trainer.

"We have started an experiment and have given five dogs for training. It was a challenge for us to train these dogs for the first time for this work, "said B B Rai, Deputy Superintendent of Police, 23 rd. Battalion, Bhopal.

The dogs have completed seven months training at Dog Training Academy of Madhya Pradesh Special Armed Force (SAF) 23rd Battalion. The training will end in July. (ANI)