The sniffer dogs at the Ranidanga SSB camp. A Telegraph picture

Ranidanga, Feb. 13: Where is the dope? Inside the sack of vegetables, or in the luggage of the sunglass-totting man, or in some corner of the Panitanki-Siliguri minibus?

Andy doggedly looks for his target in the dusty lanes of Panitanki, on the India-Nepal border, some 35 km from here.

A member of the yet-to-be-commissioned dog squad of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Andy had to live up to his image of coming first in the class at a training academy at Tekanpur, Gwalior. He sniffed here and he sniffed there, but finally, gave up the pursuit.

It was the second day of the hands-on outdoor training and acclimatisation programme for Andy and his canine colleagues, Doxy and Hero, but none of them found the target. ?Actually, no narcotics were being smuggled during this time,? their boss came to their defence. ?Otherwise, our dogs would have sniffed them immediately. They have been doing the job perfectly well at their training centre at the Ranidanga SSB headquarters.?

All born in England, the labradors with silky black coat, were trained at the paramilitary force academy in Gwalior. While Hero has been coached to detect explosives, the other two specialise in narcotics. At present, the dogs are going through a refresher training course at the SSB camp.

?Three of the five-member squad have arrived,? said SSB deputy inspector general G.S. Sayana. ?The other two will come in March or April. The dogs will be put to work once they get acclimatised to the local working conditions and are being trained accordingly.?

Around Rs 25 lakh has been sanctioned for the state-of-the-art air-conditioned kennel to come up here, about 15 km from Siliguri. Five handlers have been appointed to groom the dogs.

?The squad will help us keep a better watch on smugglers and drug traffickers on the border,? Sayana said. ?We have to resort to manual checking to rein in the smuggling of narcotics and arms through the porous India-Nepal border. The dog-squad will make our job a great deal easier.?

According to a source, the paramilitary force has seized goods worth more than Rs 2.5 crore ever since its deployment along the India-Nepal border in 2002.