What are 'cadaver dogs', and why are they important for NDRF rescue operations?

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will soon introduce its first contingent of 'cadaver dogs', which will be specially trained to sniff out dead bodies or human remains in a disaster zone, an officer said.

ALSO READ | Ajmer floods: Watch people, carts and vehicles swept away by torrential rainwater | VIDEOS

About 5-10 such dogs have been under training at NDRF battalion bases in Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh over the past few months, the officer added.

"For all these years, the NDRF focused on its mandate of saving lives. Utilising the golden hour of finding life during a disaster has been the guiding principle of the rescuers, and hence finding the dead or mortal remains was not a priority," another NDRF officer said, as per a PTI report.

It must be noted that these are not unique breeds of dogs, but certain existing breeds trained to retrieve dead bodies.

The training involves familiarising the dogs—mostly the Belgian Malinois and Labrador breeds—with a special scent from abroad that smells quite like that of human decomposition. When used for this purpose, the scent is often called a training stimulus.

ALSO READ | Who is Sneha Debnath? Body of Tripura teen found in Yamuna river after 6-day absence

The agency reiterated that retrieving dead bodies and human remains was important, because it offered closure to families grieving the dead.

Various state rescue agencies currently use only few dogs for this purpose, which have had a mixed success rate in operations involving the retrieval of the dead.

The detection of the dead is a difficult task—much more than detecting people who are alive. This is because in the case of the dead, it is more dependent on external factors that might affect the scent or the dead remains, such as prevailing weather conditions, humidity, snow, and the presence of conflicting odours strong enough to confuse the dogs.

After completing their special training—likely by the end of August—they will be enlisted within selected NDRF units.

Once deployed, we will get to know about the success rate of such dogs, the first NDRF officer said.

The most recent use of cadaver dogs was at the site of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapse in Telangana, which led to eight people being trapped. The same dogs had also been used during the 2024 Wayanad landslides.  

India