Dog squad to sniff out red sanders smugglers

Tirupati: The State government has resolved to adopt a new strategy to curb red sanders smuggling. As part of it, the government allotted six sniffer dogs to Red sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RASTF) unit on Wednesday. Starting a sniffer dog unit in anti-smuggling police wing is first-of-its-kind. These sniffer dogs were specially trained to detect the red sanders that are hidden or transported undercover.

In this connection, three dogs are allotted to Kadapa and three to Tirupati and these units will be under the control of the SPs concerned. Nevertheless, the illegal export of red sanders logs to China, Japan, Malaysia and other countries from Tirupati surrounding forest areas are going on unabated. To stem it, government has decided to induct sniffer dogs, to enable them to detect smuggling in combing operations.

Already, the dog unit was pressed into service on Wednesday in Kapilateertham forest task force headquarters. A senior official from task force speaking to The Hans India said, ““Already, task force personnel have adopted auto finger print recognition technology for identifying habitual offenders in red sanders smuggling, and we have set up CC cameras at entry and exit points in Seshachalam forest to keep a close watch on the movements of smugglers.

Along with it, sniffer dogs will be useful to curb smuggling activities. These sniffer dogs were trained for a year by security wing police for this purpose however, dogs duty chart is yet to be prepared.”