Canines on Naxal trail in Chhattisgarh

Army chief Gen JJ Singh professed on Monday that he was willing to help anti-Naxal operations in every way except by active deployment of troops.

Army chief Gen JJ Singh professed on Monday that he was willing to help anti-Naxal operations in every way except by active deployment of troops. And what he isn’t willing to allow his men to get into will now be undertaken by Army canines.

Chhattisgarh Home Minister Ramvichar Netam is scheduled to meet Defence Ministry’s Additional Secretary AK Jain and the Army Remount Veterinary Corps head Maj Gen Narayan Mohanty shortly to chalk out a deployment plan for Army sniffer dogs and dog-handlers along the Naxal-infested areas of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, with a special package for training of the state police and security agencies.

“Some of our dogs have already been there to get accustomed to the area. The state has desired a more holistic approach to the deployments and decisions will be taken shortly,” Mohanty told The Indian Express.

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A team from Chhattisgarh Police is already in Meerut to train in dog handling techniques from the Army. Six dogs, an army officer and seven other army personnel have spent the last four months in the forests of Chhattisgarh getting the dogs accustomed to the environment and “signature vapours” of explosives and weapons used by Naxals.

The Army trains Labradors and German Shepherds — it takes nine months and about Rs 1 lakh to train a dog—in conventional and unconventional explosives detection, IED and plastic explosives detection and tracking. All missions, like the ones to be conducted in Naxal-hit areas, will involve two dogs and two handlers.

“I will be visiting the UK shortly to obtain more expertise in dog training. The Royal Veterinary Corps has dogs deployed in Iraq. We have put the best of practices from around the world in our own breeding and training programme. Our dogs have the maximum exposure to militancy,” Mohanty said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, two dogs, Bhama and Hema, deployed in Jammu and Kashmir received the Chief of Army Staff’s commendation badges for specific counter-terror missions in the state.