On February 8, Romeo and Julie (minus the T) teamed up to rescue a six-year-old girl who had been trapped under debris for more than 72-hours in the Beren area of Gazianep city, Turkey.
Romeo is a six-year old male Labrador and Julie a six-year old female Labrador and the two are part of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team involved in rescue and recovery operations in Turkey, which, along with Syria, was wracked by two earthquakes whose toll has already crossed 33,000.
With Romeo and Julie are Bob (6), Roxy (7), Rambo (4), and Honey (7), all Labradors. The six dogs complement an NDRF team of 152 on site.
Less than a fortnight before they boarded the flight to Turkey, in the third week of January, Bob and Roxy were assisting NDRF personnel in the search and rescue operation after a four-storey building collapsed in Lucknow; they helped NDRF workers recover three bodies and rescue five others trapped in the debris of the building.
In Turkey, thus far, the NDRF team has rescued two children, a 6-year-old girl and a 8 year old girl – and recovered 30 bodies.
Senior NDRF officials said the 152 men along with the six canines are working in the disaster-hit Gaziantep and Antakya areas of Turkey. This is the first time since 2015 (Nepal) that India has sent NDRF to a foreign country for a search and relief operation.
“All our canines sent to Turkey are experienced . For example, Romeo participated in the rescue operation after a flyover collapse in Kolkata in 2018. Honey was part of a building collapse rescue operation in Greater Noida in 2018. Honey and the NDRF team managed to find nine bodies in record time,” an NDRF official said, asking not to be named.
A second official said that Romeo and Julie were crucial in NDRF’s rescue of the six-year-old . “All the other members of her family died in the collapse. Saving this child was a proud moment for us. It is also important to find bodies. Our teams there are working round-the-clock. Getting a body is also important to the families affected by this tragedy because this gives him some sense of a closure after this tragedy,” the officer added on condition of anonymity.
NDRF, a paramilitary force, has over 18,000 personnel across the country. It also has 140 dogs.
“We are also training our dogs in detecting bodies under the water. NDRF is giving special training to some sniffer dogs among the 140 that are with us. Separately, we are also increasing the number of dogs, setting up more kennels and a breeding facility,” said the second official.
After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, India sent a NDRF team with 18 dogs.
NDRF officials said that while three teams of 152 NDRF personnel are already engaged in rescue operations, a fourth team is ready to fly to Turkey at an hour’s notice. This team is one that is regularly engaged to work in structural collapses in Maharashtra , which, along with Uttar Pradesh, sees several structural collapses reported each year, according to NDRF officials.
“The first three teams were sent immediately along with 11 vehicles, mostly trucks. They have food for at least 15 days with them so that the local authorities are not burdened. Because the temperature in some parts of Gaziantep is below 0 degrees, our officers have jackets that we have got from the ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police),” the first official said.
