NDRF expands training to include victim identification; to train cadaver dogs

New Delhi: The NDRF, which is mandated to save lives during disasters, has now taken upon itself to train its rescuers and dogs in specialised skills for correct identification of the dead and ensure their dignity.

The federal contingency force is working on new areas of victim identification forensics and training of cadaver dogs, NDRF Director General (DG) Atul Karwal told PTI during an interaction.

The DG said a new 'victim identification' capsule has been added to the NDRF's existing module on deceased management that is imparted to the personnel as a part of the basic 'first responder course'.

As part of this module, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescuers are trained on how to recover and take care of the bodies during accidents and disasters, ensure respect to the mortal remains which may be rotten or broken into pieces, how to put them together and place them in body bags and precautions to be taken so that there is no spread of an epidemic.

"We are shortly going to start a victim identification course from what we learnt during the Balasore rail accident...this is forensic science. When we recovered bodies in Balasore, we later found that the exact location of the recovery was not marked.

"What should have been done is that if we are recovering a body from bogie X, we should put a tag or mark there so that later you can match it with the railway reservation chart or the passenger manifest and ensure that the person is identified swiftly and correctly," Karwal said.

This course will also train our rescuers in gaining skills that will enable them to help the local administration and medical staff in taking biometrics and DNA samples of victims in time so that down the line, identification of the deceased is possible, he said.

The Balasore accident involved a massive collision of three trains near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha on June 2, 2023 killing more than 290 passengers. It took many days to identify some of the victims, hand them over to their kin even as many bodies remained unclaimed.

The NDRF chief also spoke about enhancing capabilities of the canine squad of the force, which currently is only trained to sniff out victims who are alive, in this domain.

"Cadaver dog training is right now under review. We are thinking how can we do that. We did some experimentation with dogs detecting victims who are drowned... dogs swimming on the surface detecting a drowned human victim under the water..," Karwal said.

Dog breeds like the Belgian Malinois, Labrador etc are being tried and this is another avenue which can be explored hereafter, the DG said.

Cadaver dogs are trained to pick the odour of the dead inside an earthquake-hit building or any such disaster site.

Karwal said a "holistic" review of the training, equipment and the physical and mental capacity of the NDRF personnel has also been undertaken.

We completed a training needs analysis (TNA) along with the experts of the IIM Rohtak, he said.

A similar TNA was conducted for the Indian Police Service (IPS) trainees at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad when Karwal headed it as its director.

IIM Rohtak experts conducted a survey by putting a questionnaire to all 14,000 rescuers. They looked at ten states and did a survey asking police, home guards, civil defence and local administration they interact with. The experts also went to three places where victims were either addressed or were taken care of by the NDRF, the DG said.

"The idea was to find out how did we (NDRF rescuers) come across to other stakeholders, the victims, what attributes do you bring on board which a victim sees but I am blind to and which we might to need to improve upon," he said.

"We also tried to find what is the opinion of the victims about us and where do we lack -- like skills of compassion, communication, taking care of the disadvantaged, how do we treat the ladies and the kids during rescue operations.

"All these have been factored into the TNA so that our rescuers have a more polished attitudinal and inter-personal skills," he said.

The NDRF training manuals and advance courses have been revised and released recently, Karwal said.

The force was raised in 2006 and at present, it has a strength of more than 18,000 men and women rescuers deployed across the country as part of 16 battalions and 28 regional response centres.