Wayanad: Two sniffer dogs of Kerala police are playing a crucial role in the rescue and search operations at landslide-hit Mundakkai of Wayanad. Maya and Murphy, the two dogs, belonging to the Belgian Malinois breed, are integral members of the Kerala police dog squad, known for their expertise in locating bodies beneath debris. At five years old, Maya and Murphy have already assisted rescue workers in identifying several locations where victims lay trapped under the rubble.

Maya and Murphy are specially trained to detect human remains underground. Following the disaster, they were immediately brought to the site on orders from higher authorities. Originally from the Punjab Home Guard, they joined the Kerala police force in 2020. Their training is solely focused on locating bodies, and they are not trained to detect narcotics or explosives.

The training regimen for these dogs is quite unique. They work with human blood and teeth, which are obtained from government labs and hospitals, respectively. The blood is absorbed into cotton, placed in a perforated bottle, and then buried in the soil. Instead of using actual dead bodies, trainers employ a special chemical called pseudoscent, which is similar to the odour of a body's decomposition. This chemical is quite expensive as four drops cost around Rs 10,000. The trainers store pseudoscent in a freezer and use it for up to three months. The training is carried out with a piece of hard cotton, soaked in pseudoscent, buried underground.

Maya and Murphy's training sessions usually took place from 7 to 9 in the morning and from 4 to 5:30 in the evening, honing their abilities to perform their life-saving work.

When a landslide struck Pettimudy in Idukki in August 2020, Maya and Murphy were still undergoing training. Nevertheless, they were promptly deployed to the disaster site to assist in the rescue mission. Their skills were also invaluable during the search operation following the landslide tragedy at Kokkayar in 2021, as well as in aiding the police to solve the human sacrifice case in Elanthoor, Pathanamthitta.

This dynamic duo also traced two bodies from the forest in Palakkad's Vadakkumcherry. In Pettimudy, they helped the rescuers to locate eight bodies, and in Kokkayar, they found five. At Mundakkai, Maya and Murphy have been instrumental in guiding rescue workers to multiple sites where bodies are buried beneath the soil. They have been brought to Wayanad along with their trainer Prathap,