Citygritty 8212; Pune

Carry on caninesIf every dog has his day, then January 14 to 16 sure belonged to the 26 police dogs hailing from all over Maharashtra, wh...

Carry on canines
If every dog has his day, then January 14 to 16 sure belonged to the 26 police dogs hailing from all over Maharashtra, who had collected in Pune for the Maharashtra State Inter-District Police Dog Competition. While All-India police dog competitions have been an annual feature in the police force for years, this was the first time that such a meet was held at the state level.

8220;Actually, we had begun preparations for the All-India Police Duty Meet, and had invited police dogs and their handlers from various units in Maharashtra for training to Pune. However, due to unavoidable reasons, the meet was called off. So we decided that instead of letting the preparation go waste, we could have our own meet at the state level,8221; explains R B Pawar, special inspector general of police, CID crime, and the man who initiated the tournament.

Thus the Dog Training Centre of Pune intimated the other dog units of Maharashtra about it. 8220;There are 107 police dogs in Maharashtra. We got 26 entries in all and made three groups for the contests 8211; crime detection, explosive detection and under-training dogs.8221; adds Dr T.T. Bhagat, additional superintendent of police, CID crime, chief dog master and in-charge of the entire operation. He was assisted in the endeavour by police inspectors S.K. Shellar and B.N. Nayse.

The dogs 8211; including doberman pinchers, alsatians and labrador retrievers 8211; were also tested in 14 different exercises. Alongwith the contests, the opening and closing ceremonies had the dogs and their handlers demonstrating the kinds of training that police dogs undergo, which were quite a hit with the crowds that usually throng the venue for the competitions.

8220;The basic idea was to provide the trainers with encouragement and inspiration towards their duties. For this purpose, we had special cash prizes for the handlers of all the dogs who won in the tournament.8221; From Pune, a prize was bagged by the squad8217;s star dog 8211; Sultan 8211; who stood second in the crime detection category.

Encouraged by the stupendous success of the tournament, the police force is all geared to make the contest an annual event, to be conducted by the State CID Crime Unit, Pune.

Au naturel
Prakrati 8217;98, a three-day film festival, was inaugurated by noted film-maker Shyam Benegal on January 20. His film, Sankranti, was screened after the inauguration and was followed by an open discussion with him. Organised by the Consortium for Educational Communication and supported by Educational Media Research Centre, the festival will feature films and documentaries on education, development, environment and human right issues. With a schedule of about 25 films for the festival, this is a sure treat for film-lovers. These are being screened at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics auditorium.