Nine special soliders including Ranjar, Surya, Snuffy, Bagheera, Simbha, Bond, Raja, Ruddy and Bolt will joine railway protection force ( RPF) of central railways Mumbai division in August 2022. Out of these, Bagheera, a Dobermann, is a tracker and the eight Labradors are sniffers.
"Thses special recrutees are being trained at different dog training centres of indian railway railway including Alwar ( Rajsthan) Pune and Podanur ( Coimbatore) training centre" said a senior officer of CR adding that 6 explosive dog are being trained at Alwar, two Narcotics at Pune and one tracker at Podanur.
Earlier on July 23, 2021 CR purchased 14 puppies including eight Labrador, five Belgian Malinois and one Dobermann. At the time of Purchase all were around three months old. On average purchase cost of each Labrador and Dobermann was around Rs 25000 , while for the each Belgian Malinois puppy CR paid around Rs 75,000.
Surya getting training at Pune Dog Training Centre |
Keep in mind the importance of suburban railway section out of these 14 dogs, nine are alloted to the Mumbai Division. Apart from that three puppies given to the Pune division and one each to Nagpur and Bhusawal divisions of CRs.
Asked about the deployment of these new soliders, a senior officer of CR said, "Dobermanns and Labradors will be deployed in the Mumbai division while Belgian Malinois puppies will serve in the Nagpur, Pune and Bhusawal divisions"
Currently, Central Railway’s Mumbai division has 28 members, including 21 sniffers and seven trackers, in its squad. With the inclusion of the nine recruits, the squad’s strength will go up to 37.
"Dogs are considered one of the best resource when it comes to creating the actual atmosphere of security with their proven effective utility" said an officer of CR adding that deployment of thses special soliders defiantly enhanced the capacity of force .
Tracker dogs are trained to follow scent trails left by fugitives or for scent discrimination that is picking one person out of many, whose scent may be at the scene of a crime. These dogs are utilised for track patrolling, yards, workshops and tracking of anti-social elements or offenders involved in the theft of railway property or passenger crime.
Simbha getting training at Pune Dog Training Centre |
"Sniffer dogs are trained to sniff out different types of explosives such as RDX, nitrate, dynamite, black powder and potassium chlorate etc. Apart from that, sniffer dogs are also trained to sniff out different narcotic including marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin" said an officials adding that these dogs are used to search or detect explosives or narcotics at railway stations, platforms, trains (Mail/Express/Suburban Services), parcels at all railway premises.
All thses new special canine cops (eight sniffers and one tracker) will be inducted into the RPF squad in August 2022 after completion of a 32-week training. Earlier in 2020, nine dogs were retired from the service of Central Railway’s Mumbai division.
Currently, Central Railway’s Mumbai division has 28 members, including 21 sniffers and seven trackers, in its squad. With the inclusion of the nine recruits, the squad’s strength will go up to 37.
Confirming the development Jitendra Shrivastava, senior divisional security commissioner of Central Railway’s Mumbai division said, “ They are being trained keeping in mind future challenges of our security departments,”
Bagheera getting training at Podanur |
