India is all set to have a ‘national narco canine pool’ with 70 dogs to sniff out drugs in various operational scenarios. Officials said on Monday that dogs of various breeds are being trained by experts for the purpose.

The narcotics detection dogs (NDDs) pool will be raised in collaboration with the K9 (canine) cell of the Union home ministry, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and counter-terrorist force National Security Guard (NSG).

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had put forward the idea during a review conducted by his ministry in December last year on the overall narcotics, drug abuse and trafficking scenario in India.

The pool will be constituted with 70 dogs initially that will be posted with the NCB across its various field units in the country, PTI quoted a senior government official.

The plan will also aim to train NDDs and narcotics detection dog teams for various state government agencies and counter-narcotics units, as required, the official added.

Notably, it will be the first time that India will constitute a national pool of narcotics detection dogs.

They will be deployed for sniffing out narcotics that come in large shipments at sea ports, airports and cross-border land stations, and even large trucks and vehicles running across the country, added another official.

He said that the narcotics canine pool will be formed from various local and foreign breeds and they will be deployed for drug testing including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, MDMA and ecstasy among others.

“Dogs, at present, are used in a very limited capacity in detecting concealed narcotics. Various agencies have different standards. Some even do not have a standard operating procedure for deploying dogs for drug duties,” he said.

The official further added, “So, the national narco canine pool is aimed to coordinate and address the vacuum here by sharing technology and raising dogs for states and federal agencies from the training institutions of central paramilitary forces and the NSG.”

The NCB has plans to put at least two such trained dogs at its over 30 zonal and sub-zonal offices, he said.