India’s new weapon against wildlife trafficking has four legs: Maharashtra to launch first sniffer dog training centre
Mumbai: Maharashtra will set up India’s first dedicated wildlife sniffer dog training centre in Shahapur, Thane, in partnership with WWF-India, aiming to disrupt increasingly organised trafficking networks with trained canine squads.
The facility, set to begin operations next year, will train dogs to detect wildlife contraband — from tiger claws and pangolin scales to live birds — hidden in cargo, vehicles, and crowded transit hubs.
Across India, traffickers move contraband through forests, highways, courier networks and railway stations. A tiger claw wrapped in cloth. Pangolin scales stashed in grain sacks. Parakeets crammed into cages before dawn. Enforcement agencies say the trade is fueled by weak penalties, high demand, and massive profits.
To counter that, the Shahapur centre will focus solely on wildlife crime. Trained dogs will assist in raids, screen transport points, and support investigations inside protected areas. The state forest department says the shift moves enforcement from routine patrols to intelligence-led detection.
“This is about giving frontline teams a faster, sharper tool,” said a senior forest official. “Dogs can find what human eyes miss.”Once operational, the centre could set protocols for other states and scale up India’s use of canine units in tackling organised wildlife crime.
