West Bengal Forest dept to add 2 more Malinois dog to its canine squad

To prevent poaching of wildlife in state reserve forests, the West Bengal Forest department will be adding two more Malinois dogs to its canine squad, a senior official said on Sunday.

Chief Wildlife Warden Ravikant Sinha told PTI that the two Malinois dogs will be arriving on Sunday night after being trained in BSF's dog training school in Gwalior.

The two Malinois dogs - Orlando and Shyana - will be deployed for duty at Gorumara and Sunderbans respectively after health check-up at Salt Lake Deer Park.

The Malinois is a medium-to-large breed of dog, sometimes classified as a variety of the Belgian Shepherd dog rather than as a separate breed.

Sinha said two other dogs, of German Shepherd breed, will be brought to the forest department dog squad from Gwalior in next 10 days.

After the joining of four dogs in next 10 days the strength of the dog squad will reach to 10, up from the existing six, he said, adding all these 'members of forest department' will be used to stop poaching, wildlife trafficking and keep track on intrusion into reserve forests for illegal activities.

Earlier in 2017, Kareem had joined the dog squad as the first Malinois breed canine and was deployed in Buxa tiger reserve and was instrumental in unearthing many wildlife crimes including poaching.