COMBAT dogs of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) will now undergo an annual evaluation exercise to assess their efficiency and suitability for their specified tasks like sniffing out suspects, narcotics and hidden explosives, besides patrolling risk-prone areas, officials said on Thursday.

 

The Union Home Ministry, under whose command the CAPFs like the CRPF, the BSF and others work, has formulated a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the canine or K9 squads of these forces and has directed them to include it in their dog-training curriculum. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, while inaugurating the second national police K9 seminar here, said that the evaluation process was new, and it has not been undertaken for police dogs till now in the country. He added that his Ministry has tasked each CAPF to identify and conduct trials of at least one local dog breed for future induction into these forces.

 

Bhalla said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently spoken about promoting local dog breeds through scientific means, and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was working in this direction. He said the ambit of internal security was widening, the difference between internal and external security threats was getting narrower, and police and CAPF dogs were an effective force multiplier for ensuring safety and security of the troops in operations and also the citizens.