Andhra’s heroic police dog passes away in Visakhapatnam hospital

The dog is man’s best friend. It is the epitome of loyalty, sincerity, and selflessness. They are the only animal to be used, across defense and police units, as duty officers. Many countries have specialised canine units which are highly efficient and dependable. Due to their keen sense of smell, dogs are primarily used for detecting illegal substances, like drugs or explosives, and also tracking criminals on the run.

One such faithful police dog was eight years old Varsha, a loyal member of the Vizianagaram Police Force. Unfortunately, she died at a Visakhapatnam veterinary hospital on Saturday 6 July 2019 having suffered a jaw injury while playing football. Several attempts were made, to save Varsha the police dog, but she lost out due to severe blood loss and anaemia.

Varsha, a Dobermann, was inducted into the Vizianagaram Police Force when she was barely 3 months old. She was trained at the Intelligence Integrated Training Academy (IITA), near Hyderabad, where her trainers deemed her to be the best of her batch. As part of the Vizianagaram Police Department, Varsha had helped crack 136 cases during her tenure in the force. Three of these cases resulted in the convict involved being sentenced to life imprisonment. Two cases stood out as the complainant was discovered to be the culprit. One was a wife, who had murdered her husband, while the other was a man who killed his elderly father-in-law.

Varsha was also trained in detecting explosives. She had participated in many combing missions at the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border where she had tracked many extremist hideouts. Varsh also served as an explosives detector at various VIPs visits. Additionally, this top police dog had received awards for her demonstrations at the Indian Republic Day and Independence Day Parades.

At her funeral, on Sunday 7 July 2019, police department officials paid Varsha floral tributes and she received a formal burial with full State honours.