Belgian guard dogs to be deployed in Naxal areas

Neelabh Srivastava
Bangalore, Jul 25 (PTI) Where man has failed, man's best
friend is being pressed into service. The central security
forces in India have imported a little known breed of Belgian
shepherd dogs to provide troops with early warning of Naxal
attack.
These dogs, of the "Malinois" breed, will be deployed in
the Naxal infested areas of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh states
where about 120 security men have been killed in the past four
months.
Malinois Belgian shepherds have been used with success by
NATO troops in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza. The
eight Malinois being trained near Bangalore city in south
India for anti-Naxal duty are the litter of an Israeli male
Malinois which was crossed with an American bitch.
These guard dogs will accompany CRPF patrols in the Naxal
areas where previous patrols have been caught off guard and
massacred by Naxal militants.
The dogs are also being trained in explosives detection
and this will help in sniffing out Improvised Explosive
Devices (IEDs) which have in the past been found buried
beneath tarred roads.
The four-month old Malinois Belgian shepherd are
presently undergoing 22-weeks training near Bangalore and will
later be sent for an advanced course to the Indo-Tibetan
Border Police's (ITBP) National Centre for Dog Training near
Chandigarh where they will receive specialised training in
explosives and narcotics detection.
Compared to the better known German shepherd, the Belgian
shepherd is a coarser looking breed with a bigger head and
heavier snout, and is therefore not popular as a domestic pet.
But they have been proved to be extremely effective for
tracking duties in terrains similar to the Naxal infested
areas of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and the contiguous areas of
Orissa and West Bengal.
The security forces are hoping they will be able to
provide early warning of an impending ambush in such terrain.
PTI NES
MRD