NEW DELHI: While ITBP personnel valiantly guard the Indo-China border and counter left-wing extremism in Chhattisgarh, the service dogs of the force are quietly playing force-multipliers by detecting explosives and ambushes and keeping the troopers safe.
On Friday, one such ITBP service K9 – Snowy, a Malinois aged 8 years that was reared and trained by the force – was awarded for detecting a powerful pressure cooker IED in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh and saving the lives of more than two dozen ITBP personnel. Also, ITBP mare ‘Champion’ which put up a scintillating show during the National Equestrian Championships and leads the force as a representative of all ponies and mules that provide logistic support to ITBP in freezing, high-altitude areas along Indo-China border, was awarded the ‘Best Horse’ medal.
Both the awards were presented by ITBP DG Sanjay Arora at the Annual DG’s Parade held in Greater Noida on Friday. ITBP has been awarding ‘best dog’ and ‘best horse’ medals since 2016.
Snowy is a patrol explosive detection dog that is trained to not only detect explosives but also give early warning of a likely ambush almost 1-km ‘down-wind’.
