With the Commonwealth Games approaching, the Delhi Police plans to double the strength of its dog squad. According to officers, they will shortly float a tender for the purchase of nearly 45 dogs. And this time round, the police want to buy them real young.

“In view of the Commonwealth Games, we felt the need for more dogs to be stationed at various stadiums and sites,” said DCP (Crime) Neeraj Thakur. “Usually there is a shortage of trained dogs. We have decided to induct a few pups in the squad so that they can be trained later,” he added.

The Delhi Police got its dog squad in 1974. At present, it has nearly 50 dogs, which include Labrador Retrievers, German Shepherds and Dobermans. These dogs undergo intensive training at the Army Veterinary Corp in Meerut and a training centre of the Border Security Force in Madhya Pradesh.

Each trained dog can cost anything between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1 lakh. The pups come much cheaper, at Rs 7,000-10,000. The trained dogs are usually purchased when they are a year old. The police, however, plan to pick up nearly three to four-month-old pups this time.

The dogs are trained to be ‘sniffers’ and ‘trackers’. Dogs are given training in sniffing out narcotics, besides searching for and rescuing human beings in cases of natural or other disasters.

The Delhi Police has 34 sniffer dogs—mostly Labradors are trained to be sniffers. Trained to recognise explosives, these are used as part of the bomb disposal squad, at crime scenes and also to patrol an area before a VIP visit. Trackers are few in numbers and are used during investigations.

All districts of Delhi have been allotted a few dogs, depending on the requirement. “The deployment depends on the VIP movement and several other factors,” said Thakur. Southwest and New Delhi districts have the maximum number of dogs.

Though there is no fixed age of retirement, the dogs are retired from the squad at the age of eight or even earlier in case of illness. On a normal day, the dogs with the Delhi Police have an easy life — they spend merely three hours at work; the rest of the time is used for exercise and rest.

Around Rs 25,000 is spent on their food, which usually consists of 500 grams of meat for each animal, milk and dalia. Each dog has a ‘handler’ who is a constable-rank officer.

The utility of the dog squad has been, however, questioned of late. It has far fewer stories to boast of its success in helping with investigations or even detection of explosives.