Kolkata: The Dog Squad have covered nearly 2,000 km to get to Kolkata, first in AC vehicles from Chandigarh to Delhi, then in first class AC coupes of the Rajdhani Express, with special permission, to reach Howrah station yesterday. They are nine new members of our Dog Squad, trained by Indo-Tibetan Border Police trainers for the past six months to become ‘master sniffers’.
When we bought them last year, they were aged between three and five months, and were intended to replace six of our four-legged colleagues who have retired in the past year. All of them will be joining primarily as explosive detectors, and their induction brings the Dog Squad to 47 members. Yet another member is scheduled to arrive in July, trained especially to solve murder and dacoity cases and work as a crime tracker.
We will be giving them a little additional training to suit our needs, and for now, the eight Labrador Retrievers – Daisy, Dollar, Blacky, Power, Payel, Bella, Molly, and Lemon – will be accompanied by their handlers Constables Mr. Balaram Mondal, Mr. Kamal Kishore Sharma, Mr. Krishna Tamang, Mr. Uttam Nandi, Mr. Ashimanta Bairagi, Mr. Srishendu Sarkar, Mr. Surajit Dhali, and Mr. Sourav Mahato respectively, while the Golden Retriever Coral will be accompanied by Constable Kabindra Lama.
Our, Reporter in Chief
R. Manoj Kumar Sharma
Siliguri City, West Bengal
