Dog, puppies rescued from under rail heap in 6-hour operation

A dog and her two newborn puppies were rescued in the early hours of Sunday from beneath a pile of rails at a yard near Bhopal station in Madhya Pradesh, a railway official said.

The six-hour long operation, carried out by a railway team, ended at around 2:30am, he said.

"A dog got trapped under a heap of rails in our stock yard and gave birth in a distressed condition lying upside down. We were alerted about the incident by an NGO People for Animals on Saturday evening," said Bhopal Divisional Railway Manager Uday Borwanker.

"We removed 250 rails to reach to the dog and her litter of four puppies. A hydra machine was deployed as part of the rescue effort. We saved them after a 6-hour operation at around 2:30am. Unfortunately, two puppies died. It seems they were stillborn," he added.

He credited the railway's track maintenance staff and disaster management personnel for removing the rails, weighing several hundred kilogrammes, with minute precision to ensure the dog and her puppies were not hurt.