How home ministry plans to give police dog squads more teeth

squads of police dogs

Thursday, 16th September 2021

Over the next four years, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) plans to triple the size of its canine units. The Police Modernisation Division, which is responsible for equipping the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), advocated expanding breeding by CAPF canine training and breeding centres to produce 1,000 pups of diverse breeds each year at an MHA conference held on February 25-26. Currently, the MHA takes in roughly 300 puppies per year. Several Indian breeds currently undergoing suitability trials with the CAPFs could be added to the three primary breeds—German Shepherd, Labrador, and Belgian Malinois.

All seven CAPFs operating under the MHA were represented during the conference in New Delhi. “As a first step, we aim to raise our canines' performance standards to increase their efficiency and make them more effective force multipliers,” says Colonel Pramod Kumar Chugh (retired), consulting director at the MHA's Police K9 unit. The second stage would be to increase the number of dogs, which would include strengthening infrastructure, such as kennels, and selecting high-quality breeding stock—males and females created specifically for police work.

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The seminar decided that the CAPFs and central paramilitary forces needed to obtain dual-purpose dogs. For counter-Maoist operations, the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) is the only CAPF that uses multipurpose canines. “Dual-purpose canines are the way forward because, although explosive detection dogs utilise their nose to work, we aren't utilising their inherent instinct to fight and defend,” Colonel Chugh explains.

The CAPFs are the country's largest police dog users, with over 4,000 canines. The dogs are utilised for a wide range of missions, including explosive detection, as well as assault and guarding. The CRPF has almost 1,500 dogs, although the NSG (National Security Guard), a counter-terrorist squad, only has about 100. The CAPFs are looking into using dogs for additional duties, such as detecting counterfeit money.

The MHA's Police K9 unit was founded in 2019 with the goal of streamlining the breeding, training, and selecting of dogs. It has established a proficiency cell to implement a new set of behaviour assessment tests dubbed "Augmentation of K9s by Licensing as per Accreditation Norms" (AKLAN). These exams will determine a puppy's ability to perform in police and paramilitary tasks. Previously, there was no assessment mechanism and only random audits were conducted.

The CAPFs are also determining whether or not particular Indian hounds are suitable for police work. The CRPF is testing the Combai dog, which is native to Tamil Nadu, while the BSF is testing the Rampur Greyhound, which is native to northern India. The Gaddi, Bakharwal, Tibetan Mastiff, and Himachali hounds are being trialled by the ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) and the SSB (Sashastra Seema Bal). Modern breeding techniques, including as artificial insemination, and an upgrade in canine training were also advocated at the conference.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source

Indiatoday