Two Army dogs that found mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ on Sunday, Vida and Sophie, were awarded COAS (Chief of Army Staff) commendation cards on August 15 for saving lives by timely detection of mines and explosives, the Army said.

Vida belongs to a unit located in the Northern Command while Sophie belongs to the Special Frontier Force, a Bomb Disposal Squad. “Vida was instrumental in the detection of five mines and one grenade buried underground, thus preventing any casualties, injuries to troops,” the Army said. Sophie, an explosive detection dog sniffed out the presence of initiator and accelerant materials which could have been used to fabricate an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), thereby saving precious lives, it said.

Dogs trained by the Army are rendering yeoman service and acting as force multipliers in various counter insurgency and terrorist operations, the Army said. From July 2019 till date, they have made contribution in 53 operational successes. These include 30 instances of recovery of IEDs and explosives, 14 cases of recovery of arms, ammunition and other war like stores, five instances of tracking and locating terrorists leading to their elimination and four instances of recovery of live individuals or mortal remains in snow-bound areas.

Eight different trades

The dogs have also been saviours of many lives during avalanches, earthquakes and other natural disasters. The Army has eight different trades of dogs: tracker, guard, mine detection, explosive detection, infantry patrol, avalanche rescue operations, search and rescue, assault and narcotic detection.

The Army said the superiority of dogs employed is reflected by the increasing demand for them from friendly foreign countries. There has been demand for acquiring dogs trained by the Remount and Veterinary Corps (RVC) from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia. There have been requests for training their personnel in dog handling course conducted by the Indian Army from South Africa, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Seychelles among others.

Japan has shown interest on the training standards of the canines when their Chief of Staff, Japan Ground Self-Defence Force, Gen. Toshiya Okabe visited the dog training facility in Meerut on April 14, 2017, the Army said.