Ranjar, Surya, Snuffy, Bagheera, Simbha, Bond, Raja, Ruddy and Bolt will join the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the Central Railway Mumbai division in August 2022 after a 32-week training. While Bagheera is a Dobermann tracker, the others are Labrador sniffers. These canines are currently being trained to sniff out explosives and narcotics.
A senior CR official said six of them are being trained in Alwar (Rajasthan) to sniff out explosives, two are being trained in Pune for narcotics and the tracker is being trained in Podanur.
In July, the CR had sourced 14 canines, including eight Labradors, five Belgian Malinois and a Dobermann. At the time of purchase, all were around three months old. While the Labrador and Dobermann cost around Rs 25,000 each, Belgian Malinois puppies were sourced at Rs 75,000 each. While nine have been allotted to the Mumbai division, three were given to Pune division and one each to Nagpur and Bhusawal divisions of CR.
Currently, the Mumbai division has 28 dogs, including 21 sniffers and seven trackers, in its squad. With the inclusion of nine additional recruits, the squad’s strength will go up to 37.
A CR officer said that dogs are considered the best resource when it comes to creating an atmosphere of security with their proven effective utility. Tracker dogs are trained to follow scent trails left by fugitives or for scent discrimination by picking one person out of many. These dogs are used for track patrolling, yards, workshops and tracking of anti-social elements or offenders involved in the theft of railway property or passenger crime.
Officials said that sniffer dogs are trained to sniff out different types of explosives such as RDX, nitrate, dynamite, black powder and potassium chlorate. Besides, they are also trained to sniff out different narcotics, including marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin in mail, express and suburban trains.
Confirming the development, senior divisional security commissioner of CR’s Mumbai division, Jitendra Shrivastava said the canines are being trained keeping in mind future challenges of their security department.
