NEW DELHI: Desi dogs may finally get to break the 'pedigree ceiling', which is a hallmark of the elite sniffer-dog squads in our security forces.
With Chhattisgarh's experiment of training mongrels in assisting security forces turning out to be a success, street dogs may soon be in high demand.
Putting their dog days behind, the desi canines could soon threaten the pole position, hitherto occupied by their pedigreed cousins — Alsatians, Dobermans and Labradors — favoured by the security forces in tracking and helping to combat terror and insurgency.
Earlier, Chhattisgarh paraded its first batch of five mongrels alongside its pedigreed police dogs at the state's Republic Day march this year.
The gang of five, including Sally and Lily, had successfully graduated from the Jungle Warfare College at Kaker, set up to combat the Naxalite insurgency in the region.
Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan came up with the idea of training mongrels to supplement the dog squad in the state's police force, less than a year ago, when he took charge in Raipur.
"People laughed at the idea but I was confident. I told them about my own mongrel, Roxy, who I had trained in 1977 and who turned into a good police dog," Ranjan told TOI over phone.
With the rise in terror and insurgent activities across the country, the demand for trained pedigreed dogs has gone up. They come for a price and are available only at the BSF training academy in Tekanpur, the DGP said.
"Since we need a lot of dogs to tackle the Naxalite problem, we have started this experiment and it is working," he adds. Since the mongrels' traits are not known, they have to be observed for some time to see whether they have the instincts for tracking or sniffing, after they are picked up as puppies from the streets, the state police chief said.
"We get healthy puppies picked up and keep them under watch as they grow. On an average, if 10 pups are picked up, around three or four qualify to be sent for training," Ranjan, a dog lover, said, adding that the weaker pups were usually found to be inept at policing.
But the advantage of mongrels, apart from the fact that they save the state considerable money, is that they are hardier than the pedigreed dogs and are sharp in their instincts, Ranjan exults.
Considering the ringing endorsement, it may not be a surprise if other states too come up with job offers for Chhattisgarh's trained mongrels soon.
Showing posts with label POLICE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label POLICE. Show all posts
Monday, March 3, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
"My brother is a poor farmer. All in the area know him for his good conduct. We have never seen Naxals in our life. Then why is the police unnecessary
Desperate cops label villagers as Naxals, nab them
Bhubaneswar: Naxal militants or innocent victims of a police force desperate for quick results?
Orissa police arrested several men from Bodangia in Orissa, accused of being Naxalites and thrown into jail, like hundreds of other people picked up by the police since February 15 in their anti-Naxal campaign.
Their relatives have now come to the state Human Rights Commission in Bhubaneswar, seeking justice, they say, for their brothers.
"My brother is a poor farmer. All in the area know him for his good conduct. We have never seen Naxals in our life. Then why is the police unnecessary harassing us,” says victim's brother, Basu Majhi.
Police say the men were arrested after they were spotted “moving around suspiciously”. The police then produced them before a district magistrate who sent them to a jail in Phulbani. The State Human Rights Commission has taken cognizance of the matter, and asked the Orissa Director General of Police to submit a report on the arrests
Says Chairman of Orissa Human Rights Commission, R K Patra, "No innocent person should have been arrested. We take cognizance of such police atrocities and will definitely investigate the matter."
Last week in Bhubaneswar, four people were detained by the police suspecting them to be Naxals. But later it was found one of them was blind and another mentally retarded.
It seems Orissa police is simply beating around the bush to catch the Naxals.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Lessons to learn from Naxal assault in Orissa
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently described Naxalism as the biggest internal security threat to India, but states which are fighting the menace seem to be taking it lightly. This became amply clear when on February 14, the Maoists showed their might once again and carried out attacks in Orissa’s Nayagarh, Daspalla and Nuagaon. The lessons had not been learnt because this time too, like always, the policemen were reduced to mere onlookers in front of the ultras’ bullets.
Hundreds of Naxals came like a 'baraat' party and entered the crowded town at 10:30 pm with an ease difficult to comprehend. And when they left the town with looted armoury, what was left behind was policemen’s bodies.
The police administration kept claiming all night that security had been tightened to prevent ultras from sneaking out into safer area, but they still managed to escape from right under the nose of the police network and did it with an authority.
The Naxals only stopped in the safer enclosures of Ghasma Hill range in Kandhmal district. The journey from Nayagarh to Ghasma Hill was of about 100 kms through the hostile terrains, but the police force which had launched a massive manhunt, failed to find any of their trace.
However, the decision to launch a manhunt by police was still a brave one as they knew well the might of Naxals who had looted arms and ammunitions and were camped in the Ghasma Hill. In other words, it can be said that the police nearly volunteered itself for the suicidal combing operation. The result is now part of history – three cops were brutally shot down by the ultras, while the rest somehow managed to escape from the blaze of the guns.
Villagers living in the downhill Ghasma village, located barely 600 metres from the battle spot, described the fighting as a “three hour-long blitzkrieg” involving the LMGs of Naxals and sending shudders down the locality like an inauspicious Diwali. While the Naxals were firing down from the hills, the cops were replying from the open paddy fields hardly without any preventive shield. It is hard to make out which wisdom prevailed upon the top cops in charge of the operation, to push their forces to the claws of death knowing well the height at which the Naxals were positioned and the firearms they possessed. Too tentative and too suicidal a decision by the top police brass who were comfortably tuned to the VHFs at the Bhanjnagar Forest IB, about 40 kms from Ghasma Hill, waiting for ominous messages.
The damage had been done by the time the Grey Hound from Andhra Pradesh and the CRPF re-captured the hill. The Naxals had by then moved away, leaving behind Orissa cops to condole the deaths of 18 of their colleagues. The only saving grace for the state police were some obsolete 303s and bullets abandoned by Naxals on the hill.
Once the Grey Hound and the CRPF seized the armoury and made sure that the Naxals had decamped, the top cops of Orissa police in charge of the operation, made an obvious show of (unachieved) victory by marching to Ghasma Hill along with a large number of forces in full media glare. After an hour long hulla-gulla on the then tranquil lap of Ghasma, the mock exercise was over for the day. However, left in the desolation of the hill are the jawans of Grey Hound from Andhra who have been slogging since then in the absence of a minimal hospitality from the state authorities.
The state police had one more headache to tackle – the (false) claim made by the government that the police had shot down 20 Naxalites. The statement was made by none other than the state's Home Secretary and later repeated by others, including Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. It became a challenge for the police to prove to the media and people that they had gunned down the said number of Naxalites, in the absence of any bodies or other concrete evidence.
Where does the failure lies is not the main question right now. What puzzles many is that with 16 districts of the state being affected by the Naxal menace, the Orissa government has till date not been able to give shape to a grassroot policy to combat Naxal surge. In the absence of such a policy, the cops lack preparedness, advanced arms and a foolproof intelligence network. What’s baffling is that the DIG of Central Intelligence overseeing the state’s battle against the Naxals is stationed in Bhubaneswar, and only seen active in the affected areas as and when such incidents occur.
It is no justification for a lackluster fight against the Naxal menace that the tribals or poor offer the required logistic support to them Naxals. The argument does not hold much water now as the ultras are also trying hard to woo the middle-class.
The incident in Nayagarh was perhaps a manifestation of such a shift of focus. The Naxals know that with the tribals already with them, caught between the widening gap of the rich and the poor, the middle class could be an easy target to be swayed. This must sound alarm bells for the people in power. It would be better for the government to swallow the setbacks suffered in the recent times and get its acts together before another Nayagarh bogs it down
Hundreds of Naxals came like a 'baraat' party and entered the crowded town at 10:30 pm with an ease difficult to comprehend. And when they left the town with looted armoury, what was left behind was policemen’s bodies.
The police administration kept claiming all night that security had been tightened to prevent ultras from sneaking out into safer area, but they still managed to escape from right under the nose of the police network and did it with an authority.
The Naxals only stopped in the safer enclosures of Ghasma Hill range in Kandhmal district. The journey from Nayagarh to Ghasma Hill was of about 100 kms through the hostile terrains, but the police force which had launched a massive manhunt, failed to find any of their trace.
However, the decision to launch a manhunt by police was still a brave one as they knew well the might of Naxals who had looted arms and ammunitions and were camped in the Ghasma Hill. In other words, it can be said that the police nearly volunteered itself for the suicidal combing operation. The result is now part of history – three cops were brutally shot down by the ultras, while the rest somehow managed to escape from the blaze of the guns.
Villagers living in the downhill Ghasma village, located barely 600 metres from the battle spot, described the fighting as a “three hour-long blitzkrieg” involving the LMGs of Naxals and sending shudders down the locality like an inauspicious Diwali. While the Naxals were firing down from the hills, the cops were replying from the open paddy fields hardly without any preventive shield. It is hard to make out which wisdom prevailed upon the top cops in charge of the operation, to push their forces to the claws of death knowing well the height at which the Naxals were positioned and the firearms they possessed. Too tentative and too suicidal a decision by the top police brass who were comfortably tuned to the VHFs at the Bhanjnagar Forest IB, about 40 kms from Ghasma Hill, waiting for ominous messages.
The damage had been done by the time the Grey Hound from Andhra Pradesh and the CRPF re-captured the hill. The Naxals had by then moved away, leaving behind Orissa cops to condole the deaths of 18 of their colleagues. The only saving grace for the state police were some obsolete 303s and bullets abandoned by Naxals on the hill.
Once the Grey Hound and the CRPF seized the armoury and made sure that the Naxals had decamped, the top cops of Orissa police in charge of the operation, made an obvious show of (unachieved) victory by marching to Ghasma Hill along with a large number of forces in full media glare. After an hour long hulla-gulla on the then tranquil lap of Ghasma, the mock exercise was over for the day. However, left in the desolation of the hill are the jawans of Grey Hound from Andhra who have been slogging since then in the absence of a minimal hospitality from the state authorities.
The state police had one more headache to tackle – the (false) claim made by the government that the police had shot down 20 Naxalites. The statement was made by none other than the state's Home Secretary and later repeated by others, including Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. It became a challenge for the police to prove to the media and people that they had gunned down the said number of Naxalites, in the absence of any bodies or other concrete evidence.
Where does the failure lies is not the main question right now. What puzzles many is that with 16 districts of the state being affected by the Naxal menace, the Orissa government has till date not been able to give shape to a grassroot policy to combat Naxal surge. In the absence of such a policy, the cops lack preparedness, advanced arms and a foolproof intelligence network. What’s baffling is that the DIG of Central Intelligence overseeing the state’s battle against the Naxals is stationed in Bhubaneswar, and only seen active in the affected areas as and when such incidents occur.
It is no justification for a lackluster fight against the Naxal menace that the tribals or poor offer the required logistic support to them Naxals. The argument does not hold much water now as the ultras are also trying hard to woo the middle-class.
The incident in Nayagarh was perhaps a manifestation of such a shift of focus. The Naxals know that with the tribals already with them, caught between the widening gap of the rich and the poor, the middle class could be an easy target to be swayed. This must sound alarm bells for the people in power. It would be better for the government to swallow the setbacks suffered in the recent times and get its acts together before another Nayagarh bogs it down
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