Maya and Murphy. It is on the abilities of these two five-year-olds that rest, at least for now, all hopes of finding the eight workers missing inside the SLBC tunnel since the collapse on February 22.
Domalapenta: Maya and Murphy. It is on the abilities of these two five-year-olds that rest, at least for now, all hopes of finding the eight workers missing inside the SLBC tunnel since the collapse on February 22.
Whether Maya’s magic will work, or the efforts to locate the missing will turn into another example of Murphy’s law, will be known only once rescuers digging at the spots for more than 18 hours, finish their task.
Maya and Murphy, the two Belgian Malinois dogs of the Kerala police that were flown in to the tunnel site in Domalapenta of Nagarkurnool district, are experts at finding buried people, and have done so in at least four previous occasions including some of the serious landslides that hit Kerala in the past few years.
“Maya’s first success was while she was still under training,” P. Prabhath, one of the handlers of the rescue dogs, told Deccan Chronicle. "The maximum depth they can sniff out human remains is 12 feet which they have done in previous rescue efforts in Kerala, four times. We are absolutely sure the two spots they indicated are where the missing workers are under the debris,” Prabhath said.
The two dogs were not taken to the final stretch of the tunnel where debris is piled up nearly to the roof as entering that zone was considered dangerous. In addition, for Maya and Murphy, working inside the cramped and confined tunnel has been a first of its kind experience.
Given the conditions inside the tunnel with a lot of metal pieces strewn about, and likely hidden underfoot in the silt, there is concern among the handlers over Maya and Murphy's safety.
“There was a time when we thought of using shoes for them,” Prabhat said. But this idea was dropped as the dogs had to walk, climb and negotiate hard to reach spots on hard to walk areas where finding proper paw-holds would not have been possible with any paw protection gear on their legs.
“It is common for them to get cuts on their legs, and paws and scrapes on their bodies. But they love their work, and they have us to take care of them,” Prabhat said.
