Customs training sniffer dogs for deployment at international airports

The customs department is training sniffer dogs at its canine centre at Attari near the Indo-Pak border and they will soon be deployed at international airports across the country to check smuggling of narcotics and wildlife articles, among other things, officials said on Sunday.

Sniffer dogs have high value in anti-smuggling work and are being used successfully the world over by enforcement agencies to detect narcotics, explosives, weapons, currency, alcohol, tobacco products and wildlife articles, they said.

Indian customs has its own canine squads -- K9 -- with 17 detector dogs which are deployed at airports across the country viz. New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Trichy, Cochin, Thiruvananthapuram, Amritsar and Pune, said Suresh Kishnani, chief commissioner, Directorate of Logistics under the finance ministry.

For the training of detector dogs and handlers, a dedicated Customs K9 Centre (CCC) was established recently at Attari, Amritsar, he said.

Kishnani said the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has approved the strengthening of the existing K9 squads and taken significant decisions. It has directed the Directorate of Logistics to upgrade the Indian customs K9 to have 242 detector dogs.

The Directorate of Logistics established the training centre at Attari under the administrative control of Amritsar Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, which is under the Delhi Custom Preventive Zone, he said.

This centre has a capacity to train 20 pups in a batch, the officer added.

Anees Cherkunnath, deputy commissioner, Directorate of Logistics, said, "As many as 11 dogs (seven labradors and four cocker spaniels) are under training. After completion of training, sometime around August this year, these dogs will be deployed at international airports of Delhi, Amritsar, Mumbai and Cochin, among others."