Delhi Police acquiring 35 sniffer, explosive detection dogs from Army

Delhi Police will add 35 sniffer and explosive detection dogs trained by the Indian Army within a month.

Disclosing this to IANS, Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajan Bhagat said these dogs would help police in tracking and solving crimes and finding evidences from crime spots.

The decision to add these dogs to the force was taken after back-to-back inputs by the Special Cell of Delhi Police of possible terror attacks in the national capital.

Even on Monday, the Special Cell issued an advisory about two terrorists trying to enter Delhi to execute terror attacks.

"Currently we have 60 sniffer and explosive detection dogs, comprising Labradors, German Shepherds and Cocker Spaniels. But we have a requirement for 150 dogs. At present, we have two to three dogs in each police district. This is less than the minimum requirement," Bhagat told IANS.

"We keep such dogs for eight years and after that we declare them retired. We need more strength this time to manage the security of Delhi. Therefore, we sent a proposal to the Army to give Delhi Police 150 dogs more.

"They agreed to give us 100 dogs soon, out of which 35 trained dogs will be given within July from the Army Veterinary Corps," said Bhagat, who is also in-charge of the Delhi Police Dog Squad.

These dogs are also deployed at Delhi Metro stations, hotels and VVIP events.

"Delhi witnesses a number of VVIP programmes or mass activities on a daily basis, which can be targeted by anti-national elements," the officer said.

According to Bhagat, currently 60 dogs are kept at two centres located in Model Town and Chanakyapuri areas. "But all of them are not fit for work round the clock. So we decided to raise their number.

"We will keep the dogs to be given by the Army in our newly-built first-of-its-kind multi-storey dog squad building, having a capacity to accommodate 35 dogs, in Pushp Vihar (in south Delhi), adjacent to the Crime Branch office.

"These dogs are given tough training spanning over six to nine months by the Army. The National Security Guard (NSG) also hires trained dogs from the Army. These dogs are handed over to NGOs working in the veterinary field after we retire them," Bhagat added.

(Sanjeev Pal can be contacted at sanjeev.p@ians.in)

--IANS

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