14 New Sniffers to Join India’s Wildlife Dog Force

India’s fight against wildlife crimes got a further boost when 14 young wildlife sniffer dogs known as ‘Super Sniffers’ along with their 28 handlers will join the force after completing a seven-month-long training course in Haryana.

Since 2008, Maharashtra has received 10 sniffers and 3 more for Amravati, Gondia, and Pandharkawda forest divisions. Two each will join Odisha, Karnataka, and Chattisgarh forests, and one each will be for Tamil Nadu, Gujrat, and Uttar Pradesh forest departments.

Two sniffers will join Railway Protection Force (RPF). The latest unit of the wildlife sniffer dogs passed out from the Basic Centre Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (BTC-ITBP) camp in Panchkula (Haryana). It is the ninth batch to be trained since the launch of WWF and TRAFFIC, India’s pioneering wildlife sniffer dog training program in 2008.

To date, 88 wildlife sniffer dog squads have been trained. The program is designed carefully to accommodate both detection and basic obedience skills specifically to combat the illegal wildlife trade. The dogs are taught to detect leopard and tiger skin, elephant skin, tusk, and antlers of spotted sambar and deer at the training institute.

Source: Times Of India