NDRF dogs being trained to sniff out dead from under debris

Time of India

08-05-2025

Mumbai: Dogs that can sniff out dead humans from a disaster spot, like a building collapse, for instance, are currently being trained for the first time. Six such 'cadaver' dogs, some of which are very likely to be deployed for service in Mumbai, have been undergoing a nine-month training course since December at camps of
National Disaster Response Force
(
NDRF
).Until now, disaster rescue dogs were trained only to sniff out people who are alive, said Dr Sandeep Shrivastava, veterinary officer, NDRF.
"For the very first time, we are training canines to sniff out dead humans from beneath debris," he told TOI. Requests from municipal corporations to provide such dogs is what spurred the force to initiate such a training programme.While four of the young puppies are being taught the skill at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu, two others are in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Two of the pups are of Belgian Malinois breed, the other four are Labrador Retrievers. Typically, grown-up dogs are not trained for the task; such skills can be taught only when they are very young pups, said Dr Shrivastava. Once the training wraps up, likely around August, the trained dogs will be deputed for service to different battalions of NDRF. There are 16 such across the country. Delegation of canines will hinge on the need in different zones."Mumbai, a disaster-prone area which has witnessed building collapses, will have some of these trained dogs," Dr Shrivastava said, adding that a verbal request had been made by the civic body, expressing the need for such dogs.The disaster force has dogs that sense live humans, others that can sniff out humans under avalanches, and now
cadaver dogs
.
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Training for each of these is different, said the veterinary officer."These dogs function on 'scent theory'," Dr Shrivastava said, adding that a dog's ability to sniff out a smell is between 10,000 times to 1 lakh times that of humans. "Dogs have 300 million olfactory cells… while human beings have only 6 million," he said.While the service dogs have a special diet curated for them, what matters more is the continuing, regular training that they are put through even after they are deployed in service.
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Mock drills are carried out every week to keep their scent skill alive, just so that they do not lose touch with their ability. For this, a dummy disaster scene is created with an uneven surface to replicate a "challenging" disaster-struck landscape. A human is hidden somewhere beneath the heap of rubble that is laid out, and the dog is made to sniff the person out, Dr Shrivastava explained. "But we also train the dogs to first ensure their own safety."