New Delhi, Dec 30: Over 2,300 dogs and 1,415 horses are serving police across states and union territories in the country, and Gujarat has the biggest reserve of animals followed by Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, according to latest government data.
The police in Gujarat have the maximum number of horses and camels, Maharashtra the most number of sniffer dogs and UP tracker dogs, as on January 1, 2020, showed the data released by the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D).
Police across states and UTs in India have 3,867 animals, including tracker dogs, sniffer dogs, horses and camels, the BPR&D said in its latest data on police organisations.
Altogether, there are 2,365 dogs (1,516 sniffers and 849 trackers), 1,415 horses, 28 camels and 59 other animals with the police across the country, the BPR&D, a wing of the Union Home Ministry, said.
Among the states and UTs, the police in Gujarat have the biggest reserve of 574 animals followed by Uttar Pradesh (428), Maharashtra (298), Madhya Pradesh (244), according to the data.
Gujarat Police have 422 horses, 69 sniffer dogs, 49 trackers dogs, 28 camels and six animals listed in the ‘others’ category.
UP Police have 215 horses, 96 sniffer dogs, 117 trackers dogs, while the figures for camels and ‘other’ animals were not available, the data showed.
Maharashtra Police have 194 sniffer dogs and 104 trackers dogs but no horses or camels, while MP Police have 132 horses, 68 sniffer dogs and 44 tracker dogs, according to the BPR&D. These states are followed by Telangana with 235 animals, Tamil Nadu with 226, Karnataka 208, West Bengal 197, Rajasthan 187, Andhra Pradesh 181, Kerala 157, Bihar 147 and Punjab 127.
The Delhi Police’s animal reserve stood at 86 with 15 tracker dogs, 59 sniffer dogs and 12 horses, as on January 1, 2020, the data showed.
From the lower side, the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli has three animals in its police reserve followed by Manipur and Sikkim (six each), Arunachal Pradesh (seven), Mizoram and Puducherry (eight each), it showed.
Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya have 11 animals each, while Himachal Pradesh has 16, Tripura 18, Assam 50, Odisha 41, Uttarakhand 45, Chandigarh 43, Jammu and Kashmir 59, Jharkhand 62, Haryana 80 and Chhattisgarh 87, the data showed.
The BPR&D said no figures were made available from the UTs of Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Daman and Diu, and the northeastern state of Nagaland. (PTI)
