5. Fear of more terror attacks drives demand for sniffer dogs in India

By Rama Lakshmi

Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, March 29, 2010

Aman in a camouflage uniform held a leash and ordered, "Sniff! Search!"

A black Labrador retriever began sniffing immediately at items piled on the ground: dolls, toy cars, a plastic dump truck. When his nose rubbed a gray briefcase, he stopped, wagged his tail and sat down. A hidden explosive had been discovered.

The 16-month-old Lab, curiously named Boom, is an ace sleuth in India's battle against terrorism and one of hundreds of dogs at India's largest military-run training center.

Sniffer dogs are in high demand in India as officials boost security in the aftermath of the deadly Mumbai attacks in November 2008. The army has long used dogs to battle separatist violence in the states of Kashmir and Punjab. But as insurgents and terrorists expand their targets across the country, dogs are also being deployed to malls, metro stations, luxury hotels and other public places in India's booming new cities.

The country's handful of sniffer dog training centers are run by the military. The institute here in the northern city of Meerut supplies trained dogs to the army, paramilitary forces, commando squads and police departments across India. Officials say the 50-year-old center has never had such a high volume of orders.

"The demand for sniffer dogs is colossal, and it has grown multi-fold since the Mumbai terror attacks. Every city wants more and more sniffer dogs now," said Commandant M.L. Sharma, chief of the Remount and Veterinary Corps, the army's premier training institute, which breeds, rears and trains dogs like Boom. "To meet this demand, we have to urgently grow 2 1/2 times in our capacity in the next two years."

New Delhi's police department has 32 sniffer dogs and has ordered 50 more ahead of the Commonwealth Games in October. Major airports have increased the number of sniffer dogs by at least 50 percent since 2008. The National Security Guard, an elite commando force, needs dog teams at its new regional hubs.

"We had to wait a long time for our dogs," said Rajan Bhagat, a senior police officer in New Delhi. "The pressure on the government and private breeders and trainers is too much."

Until the Mumbai attacks, private security in India meant a uniformed guard standing at the gate with a baton.

"Every bomb blast is a new wake-up call. Malls, cinemas, five-star hotels and offices now want their private security agencies to bring the dogs to sanitize their sites daily. India cannot afford expensive electronic explosive-detection devices, so dogs are a cheaper alternative," said Paramjit Singh, head of Taser India, an Arizona-based company that makes non-lethal stun guns and set up an office here after the Mumbai attacks.

India's private security industry is largely unregulated, and Singh said many companies "are fooling their clients by walking untrained Labradors."

Private security agencies say they do not have enough qualified trainers, and, because they lack access to explosives, they use firecrackers to train their dogs. Anil Dhawan, president of the Asian Professional Security Association, India, said the country has become "a big market right now for international security companies specializing in trained sniffer dogs. Companies from Israel and the U.K. are looking to come here.

"But bringing the dogs and the handlers from abroad will be very expensive" for private establishments such as hotels and malls, Dhawan said.

At the military academy, dogs go through rigorous basic obedience training, take puppy aptitude tests and speed-walk on treadmills. One of the academy's star graduates, Bhanu, won a national medal for his work during the Mumbai attacks.

The training is not without hazard to the dogs. Dogs who sniff explosives constantly during training often have lung damage and a shorter life span, dog trainers say.

"It becomes like a smoker's chest. It brings down their vitality," Col. Sanjiv Bhalla said at the army's training center here. "The sniffer dogs live for about eight years, whereas a regular pet dog lives for 12 years." Beginning next month, Bhalla said, the center will begin testing with samples of non-hazardous explosives imported from the United States.

India's torrid summer months pose another problem for Labs. Their effective work hours are reduced, they get severely dehydrated and their noses bleed. Some Indian trainers are planning to import U.S.-made jackets with cooling packs for the dogs.

On a recent morning, six spiffy sniffer dogs in New Delhi's police department lined up for their day's duties, which included sniffing for explosives on the routes taken by VIP politicians' cars, at the railway station and in a stadium where the World Cup Hockey tournament was being played.

Sub-Inspector Digvijay Singh looked fondly at the dogs from a room with peeling walls adorned with plastic flowers and dog medals. "These dogs are patriotic Indians," Singh said. "They are better than our men, because they don't take bribes."

Answer the questions:

1. Do sniffer dogs serve in the Russian police?

2. What are the other ways to prevent terrorist attacks?

3. What do you know about Mumbai Terrorist attack? Read article 6 for information.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR2010032802722_2.html

29/03/2010