MADHYA PRADESH: Rewind to May 2011, a military working dog, Cairo, who was on the verge of retirement, was the lone non-human soldier in the US Navy SEALs team that hunted down al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Five years later, another Belgian Malinois breed canine, Conan, forming part of the US armed forces tier-one special mission unit, Delta Force, chased the then leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi into a tunnel in Syria in October 2019, forcing the terror leader to blow himself up. Nearly five years later, as many as 13 dogs of the same breed, are helping the Madhya Pradesh forest department in tracking and solving the gravest of wildlife crimes in the dense forests of the central Indian state.
Forming part of the department’s 16-canine strong-dog squad (three others are German Shepherd dogs), the 13 Belgian Malinois canines, aged between 18 months and seven years, are currently helping specialised state tiger strike force (STSF) in cracking poaching cases in different jungles of the state.
This breed, developed in the Malines area of Belgium in the 1800s, is famous for being intelligent, agile and alert.
Besides Belgian Malinois canines, three dependable German Shepherds, aged between one and six years, complete the 16-member squad, which is perhaps the biggest sniffer and tracker dog contingent of any forest department in the country. And, it is currently deployed in the seven tiger reserves and at other places with STSF across the state.
They have cracked 280 wildlife crime cases since 2016, resulting in the arrests of 759 poachers and co-conspirators.
“Our sniffer-tracker dog squads who along with their handlers have gone through rigorous nine months training at training units of MP Police (Bhopal), BSF (Gwalior) and ITBP (Panchkula), have played a key role in busting many organised poaching syndicates, who have indulged in some of the most brutal poaching of tigers, leopards, bears, deer varieties, and wild boars in the jungles of the state. These squads are the backbone of our wildlife crime combat system,” MP’s principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF-Wildlife) Vijay N Ambade said.
In April 2023, six-year-old Belgian Malinois dog Bruno, successfully tracked a racket killing leopards and other wild animals in the jungles of Manpur in Indore division, by using live wire traps. Bruno sniffed and tracked the crime trail till 7 km before taking its handlers to a godown storing a plethora of clutch wires for killing more wild animals through live wire traps.
One of the stars among the Belgian Malinois canines is 8 years old Apollo, who along with its handler Gagan Gond, has cracked 50-plus cases in the last seven years, which include the complex blind poaching case of a tiger in Singrauli district in November 2021.
It took the combination of Gagan and Apollo three days and tracking of 2 km in the jungles of the Vindhya region, before recovering the remains of the poached tiger from a hillock and a river, leading to the arrest of 12 men, including a teenager. Two years before it, the same handler-dog combo successfully cracked the blind poaching of a wild boar in the Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, leading to the arrest of four poachers.
Even the present and previous German Shepherd canines have not lagged behind the Belgian Malinois dogs.
Current German Shepherds and retired ones have handled and successfully cracked the toughest of cases, not just in MP, but also in adjoining Chhattisgarh.
In 2017, one of the sniffer-tracker dogs was roped in by the Chhattisgarh Forest Department to probe the poaching of a sambar deer in Kawardha district. It ultimately ended up aiding the busting of a big racket indulging in poaching of multiple wild animal species, including tigers, bears and pangolins.
Similarly, in 2016, another German Shepherd, Jimmy, guided by handler Kailash Charar, led to the poachers, who killed a tiger and cut its paws out of superstitious beliefs in the Kanha Tiger Reserve.
Another star canine, Jackie, and later one Tina, both handled by seasoned handler Padam Rajput, cracked multiple cases of poaching. Among them was one October 2014 case pertaining to the poaching of blackbucks and panthers in Satpura Tiger Reserve and the 2021 case of poaching of chital deers in the Narmadapuram district.
But, it’s not just wildlife crime cases, which have been worked out with the sniffing and tracking prowess of the forest department’s dog army. Even the state police have roped them in working out some gruesome cases of violent crime registered under the Indian Penal Code.
“In 2023, a case of a young woman, whose headless body was found in Sidhi district, was solved by the local police with the help of a Belgian dog, Apollo, which led to the arrest of the murdered woman’s jilted lover,” state’s deputy conservator of forest and officer-in-charge of state tiger strike force (STSF) Ritesh Sarothiya said.
But the canines’ success is incomplete without the support and guidance of their handlers. The most successful and the oldest handlers are 48-year-old Kailash Charar and 42-year-old Padam Rajput. The duo were the first dog handlers of the first pair of German Shepherd dogs, Jackie and Jimmy, who were donated to the state forest department in 2009 by the Indian arm of the global NGO monitoring the trade of wild plants and animals.
“Kailash and Padam are the two strong pill/rs of our dog squad which has been functioning since 2009. While Kailash along with multiple dogs has helped the department solve 59 cases of wildlife crimes resulting in arrests of 99 poachers, dogs under Padam’s guidance have cracked 90 cases resulting in arrests of 150-plus criminals so far. The duo was conferred with a wildlife award in 2012 and 2013. Currently posted in Jabalpur, Kailash is also taking care of three retired dogs at the department’s retired dog centre, Sarothiya added.
The three retired dogs, Shera, Marvel and Nirmal, are now under the utmost care of Kailash and are being provided with all nutritional and medical support in their kennels in Jabalpur. “Dogs which dedicated their active life to guarding the jungles and catching the enemies of jungles and wildlife were not just taken care of by us during their active years, including celebrating their birthdays uniquely. Now we’re ensuring that they lead a safe retired life also under best scientific protocols till their natural end,” Sarothiya said.