Mancherial: Sniffer dog Cheetah dies of cardiac arrest

In-charge Jannaram Forest Range Officer Sushma Rao, in a press statement on Tuesday, said the German Shepherd dog was introduced by the forest to detect and track down poachers in 2018.

Mancherial: Cheetah, a sniffer dog of the Forest department, died of a cardiac arrest after serving the department for six years in Jannaram on Monday night.

In-charge Jannaram Forest Range Officer Sushma Rao, in a press statement on Tuesday, said the German Shepherd dog was introduced by the forest to detect and track down poachers in 2018. To Cheetah’s credit, he had solved 16 cases helping the forest department. Cheetah, the FRO said, was bought for Rs.35,000 and was trained at the National Training Centre for Dogs, a Border Security Force Academy, at Tekanpur in Gwalior of Madhya Pradesh for nine months.

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District Forest Officer Shiv Aasheesh Singh said Cheetah had played a vital role in chasing mysteries behind forest crimes occurring in Kawal Tiger Reserve and deterrence of crimes as well. He had helped foresters by sniffing out poachers who hunted a leopard in Armoor forest of Nizamabad district. He was about to undergo another training session, but suffered the cardiac arrest and died, he added.

Cheetah was handled by two forest beat officers, Satyanarayana and Srinivas, till a few months back.