One of the 13 newly trained wildlife sniffer dogs deployed to fight wildlife crimes in the Kaziranga National Park, cracked her first poaching case, in her first week.
Quarmy, the female German shepherd and her handler Laxmi Nandan Baruah set out to nab the alleged poacher and the hidden arms, after receiving information on the suspect. The team reached the house of the alleged poacher which was empty at that time.
The dog was given the scent of the shirt found inside the accused’s house. Quarmy followed the scent and led the team through the forest to a pond. The officials searched the entire area around the pond but couldn’t find anything while the dog kept indicating towards the pond. Finally, a team member went in the water and recovered weapons; a 303 rifle and a silencer from the pond.
Meanwhile the coordinating wing of the Forest Department had arrested the alleged poacher from another location. The dog squad was then sent for his identification. Quarmy remembering the scent from the shirt of the accused identified the poacher immediately and helped crack the case, reported WWF India.
The dogs have been trained by TRAFFIC in collaboration with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) at the National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD) in Tekanpur, Gwalior. The pack of 13 sniffer dogs who are also called super sniffers, nine are German Shepherds and four are Belgian Malinios. The dogs have been trained for nine months since April, 2017. Reportedly, 19 states in India will be using sniffer dogs to curb wildlife crimes.
Wildlife crimes have been rampant in the national parks of the region and despite the stringent measures enforced by the authorities, the criminals have been proving elusive. In response to this, 13 sniffer dogs have been employed to watch out for wildlife criminals.