The Karnataka state police have decided to invest heavily in their canine department, to increase the number of dogs which will be trained to detect drugs and ammunition, as well as apprehend criminals. As many as 50 new dogs will be inducted into the police dog squad in Karnataka at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore to strengthen the force, a top official said on Tuesday.

"Fifty dogs will be adopted and inducted into the existing dog squad at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore to strengthen the state police force," said Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao.

Inaugurating the newly upgraded Dog Activity Park at the CAR (City Armed Reserve, South) in Adugodi near Koramangala in the city, Bhaskar Rao said that the dog squad plays an important role in the detection of explosives, drugs and crime scene.

He said that best possible training will be imparted to the police dogs to strengthen the existing canine team.

At the Dog Activity Park, the dogs will be trained under the leadership of CAR South and ACP (Assistant Commissioner of Police), Ninga Reddy Patil.

According to the Bengaluru Police Commissioner, the police department will hire the services of Amrut Sridhara Hiranya, a renowned dog psychologist, popularly known as ‘dog guru'. Amrut had first started working with the Bengaluru police department as a canine psychologist two years ago. He was appointed as the canine psychologist to reduce the dog handler's burden of understanding each individual dog and its needs.

So far, dog handlers have been mostly male constables. However, Bhaskar Rao said the police department is also planning to appoint female constables as dog handlers in the future.

At the inauguration of the Dog Activity Park, the trained canines showcased their skills such as tackling vehicle hijacking, explosives detection, drugs detection and anti-terrorist warfare tactics.