Rocky and Jumbo went to work in Timure and Ghattikhola on August 26, the day floodwater struck the Bhotekoshi region. With debris unstable and some locations difficult for rescuers to enter, the two search-and-rescue dogs gave excavation crews another way to identify where missing people might be buried.
Rocky, a Belgian Shepherd, and Jumbo, a German Shepherd, traveled with their handlers from the Nepal Police Canine Office in Kathmandu. Their searches helped rescuers locate two bodies and a body part. “The canines were fully equipped and deployed on the very day the flood came. They have proved to be very effective,” Nepal Police spokesperson Abinarayan Kafle said.
That first deployment expanded three days later, when Nepal Police sent Labradors Leo and Kalu from Kathmandu. The dogs and their handlers searched across Bidur, Archale, Shantibazar, Mailung Hydropower, Dhunge, Devighat, Betrawati, Bhainse and Battar. Police officials credited canine teams with locating human remains at the Mailung Hydropower-3B employee quarters and Battar Solar House.
Deepsi, a German Shepherd deployed from Chitwan, helped locate two bodies at Damouli Golaghat. In all, Nepal Police assigned five dogs and 10 handlers to the operation.
A larger canine deployment
The Armed Police Force deployed another seven dogs with 14 handlers. Its teams worked in Timure, Devighat, Betrawati, Trishuli Bazaar, Dhading and Chitwan. APF spokesperson Netra Bahadur Karki said those dogs helped locate and recover 19 buried bodies, with excavation teams recovering remains from the places the dogs indicated.
Together, Nepal Police and APF canine teams helped locate 26 bodies and body parts. Five additional canines arrived with a South Korean rescue team to assist the continuing operation. Nepal Army dogs remained on standby rather than entering the search, according to Army spokesperson Rajaram Basnet.
The deployment rests on decades of institutional canine work in Nepal. Nepal Police began using dogs in 1970 after acquiring two trained dogs from Malaysia. The Nepal Army established its dedicated canine operation in 1999, and the APF formed its canine unit in 2006.
What a canine indication means
Human-remains detection is a dog-and-handler discipline, not a dog working in isolation. The dog searches for a trained target odor and communicates a change or formal indication to its handler. The handler must read that behavior, mark the location and pass the information to the personnel responsible for the next stage of the search.
FEMA’s urban search-and-rescue guidance distinguishes teams trained to find living survivors from those trained to detect human remains. It also notes that human-remains dogs can differentiate human remains from animal remains and other distracting odors. Such teams coordinate with law-enforcement and other authorities responsible for processing and identification.
An alert therefore narrows an excavation area; it does not replace physical verification. In one Los Angeles Fire Department search conducted under FEMA standards, two dogs independently indicated the same area before debris removal confirmed the find. That case illustrates a formal corroboration practice used when a second team is available, although the information provided about the Nepal operation does not establish whether the same procedure was used there. The department’s account also emphasizes the training and continuing practice required of both dog and handler.
The Nepal teams could enter narrow spaces and investigate scent beneath rubble, but they could not search continuously. Handlers watched their behavior and provided rest after periods of work. That rotation matters in terrain requiring dogs to move over or through flood-damaged material while maintaining enough concentration to give a useful indication.
Flood zones also present risks beyond structural instability. The CDC’s floodwater guidance identifies waste, chemicals, downed power lines, sharp debris, vehicles and disease-causing contaminants among the possible hazards in floodwater. Those conditions make controlled deployment and close handler supervision fundamental parts of the job.
In the Bhotekoshi response, the dogs’ contribution was specific and operational: identify priority locations in difficult debris, communicate those locations through trained behavior and allow excavation crews to direct their work. As the search continued, that partnership offered authorities and families a disciplined means of finding people where human access alone was limited. What’s your dog’s job, official or self-appointed? Tell us in the comments.
By Tom Whitaker — Outdoor magazine editor who has reported on search-and-rescue, herding, field dogs, and working-dog handlers.
