A nose for the precious wood

A one-member dog squad, a first for the forest wing, is hard at work, sniffing out stolen sandalwood.

December 16, 2014 10:14 am | Updated 10:14 am IST - MARAYUR:

Kichu has a residence-cumtraining centre at the Marayur sandalwood division.

Kichu has a residence-cumtraining centre at the Marayur sandalwood division.

Kichu, alias Dingo, the sole member of the first dog squad of the Forest Department, has a well-defined role and routine. The sniffer and tracker dog is trained exclusively in ferreting out sandalwood logs.

The Labrador retriever was ‘recruited’ by the Forest Department in 2011 when it was two months old. Kichu was then trained for nine months by the Kerala Police Academy, Thrissur. G.P. Pradeepkumar and N.K. Balakrishnan, two beat forest officers, were trained in handling Kichu, whose two siblings are also in the dog squad of the Kerala Police.

Kichu now has a separate residence-cum-training centre at the Nachivayal range of the Marayur sandalwood division. “This is for the first time in the country that a Forest Department is using a dog squad to trace its stolen property,” said Marayur range officer M.G. Vinodkumar, adding that it is a major factor in reducing sandalwood theft in the division. Kichu’s service is being used in vehicle-checking too. “It sniffs out sandalwood hidden anywhere in a vehicle,” said Mr. Vinodkumar. “In a few cases, Kichu guided the flying squad to the vehicle and the sandalwood.”

Its duty starts at 8 a.m. with physical training. Food — a mixture of rice, dog food, and fish — is given at 11 a.m. A two-hour rest follows. Then it is trained in tracing hidden sandalwood. Once the command is given, Kichu moves around till the wood is tracked.

Earlier, in the event of suspicion, the forest officials had to check the whole vehicle — a tedious process especially at night. The smugglers used to outsmart them by hiding the loot in cubicles. Not any more. “Now we just have to ensure that the vehicle has sandalwood. Kichu does the rest,” said Mr. Pradeepkumar.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.