Not enough dogs to ‘man’ our airports

Mumbai: If you thought our airports were only under-staffed, here’s something else to think about. According to a report prepared by the Union ministry, they are ‘under-dogged’ as well — even the dog squads are short-staffed and need more recruitment. Although the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has been managing its own dog squad since 2007, the committee thinks that it can do better with more dogs.
Last month, a committee on augmentation of police dogs formed by the Union ministry of home affairs submitted a report saying that the Mumbai airport needs 56 sniffer dogs. The committee was appointed by the ministry in July 2007 to study and recommend ways in which more dogs can be deployed to counter the increasing terror threats.
The committee stated that not only Mumbai but other airports across India should deploy more dogs. “On an average, there should be two dogs per 12 flights for exclusively carrying out safety checks,” says the report. Mumbai airport, has 91 international and 248 domestic departures every day.
Just last December, the CISF at Mumbai got its own dog squad of 12 canines to detect explosives. “Whenever there is a suspected object/bomb hoax, we get the dogs to the airport terminal building to check for explosives,” says a CISF official. “There are two to three bomb hoaxes every week at the airport.” These dogs cannot be in the terminal round the clock. They need to rest and are brought to the terminal at night only during emergencies. But if the recommendations of the committee are accepted, then it would be possible to have sniffer dogs at the airport round the clock.
16/11/08 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Airports Nov 2008, Safety Nov 2008