GROWTH PANGS: The four ponies that are giving Mounted Police stable officers sleepless nights. Picture by Pabitra Das

Will they or won?t they?

Police are keeping their fingers crossed, not being able to figure out whether four ponies at the Alipore Bodyguard Lines will reach the required height to be inducted into the force.

Saraswati (seven months), Valentine (eight months), Nadia and Zaara (both two months), fathered by Australian stallion Ashtojoy at the Calcutta Mounted Police stables, are being keenly monitored by the staff at the Bodyguard Lines.

The ponies and 19 adult horses, brought from Punjab, are also at the risk of contracting an infection.

Had they been like their masters, they would have cursed the rain god. Incessant showers for days on end, around two weeks ago, had flooded the stables and made the paddocks and the training centre too wet for their hooves.

Officers fear that the loss of crucial exercise hours will stunt the ponies.

They may not grow up to 15-and-a-half hind (a hind is the length of an arm from the elbow to the fist), the mandatory requirement for induction into the mounted force.

The other fear is that of water-induced infection, which may ruin the career and the life of the animals. The memory of Tease ? a pony in service that died of cold ? is still fresh in the officers? minds.

To save the animals from infection, the authorities had relocated them from the waterlogged Alipore stables to the Mounted Police headquarters at 130, SN Banerjee Road. They were back home on Thursday.

?The Alipore stable is beside a pond, from where water overflowed during the showers. It has now been blocked. Other measures are also being taken to save the animals,? said Zulfiquar Hassan, joint commissioner (armed police).

The animals are under round-the-clock surveillance by a veterinary expert. Special sterilisation drives have been undertaken and the Race Course ground is being readied for the run-and-play.

?Every day is crucial for horses, especially the young ones. They need to exercise regularly and must be kept in open paddocks. Instead, they are being forced to spend days in crowded stables. During the rains, even the stables were waterlogged, forcing us to shift the animals. Else, they would have died of infection,? said a senior officer.

Lack of exercise, another officer added, may make the animals prone to colic, a fatal disease caused by overeating.

?The stables need to be completely dry. Even if water reaches above the hoof, it may be dangerous for horses,? said Deepak Das, officer-in-charge of the Mounted Police.