The Kerala police have thanked Odisha police for sending the German Shepherd Storm to participate in the Wayanad landslide rescue operation.

The dog, aged about five years, was chosen by the dog squad team following a request from the Kerala team to find the survivors in the landslide-hit areas of Wayanad.

SP, Berhampur, Dr Sarthak Sarangi said: “It has done a commendable job. It returned after completing its job in Kerala. We are proud of it. It has made Odisha police proud.”

Dhiren Kumar Biswal, a member of the team that accompanied the dog to Kerala, said: “Storm, the gem of all dogs, has found as many as 15 bodies from the debris in Wayanad. It has made us proud.”

Biswal said: “The job for Storm and our team was too tough. We reached here after almost a week. The immediate rescue operation was over. However, we were sure that Storm would certainly make us proud. When no one had any idea that the body would be found in a particular spot that others had already sanitised. But to our surprise, storm insisted that the place should be dug. Until and unless the work begins to dig the place, Storm will continue to sit there and give us the feedback.”

Another member Prahalad Nayak said: “We have recovered around 15 bodies with its support. After our job was over, we left Kerala. Track dogs are given a scent of suspects, but search and rescue operations can smell different types of human odour in the air. They can smell it from the debris.”

Storm is part of the most revered K-9 dog squad, based in Berhampur in southern Odisha. While all the canines are trained to detect theft, murder, and explosive cases, the five-year-old male German Shepherd is an expert in search and rescue operations to trace the deceased and the debris survivors.

In the Waynad tragedy, Odisha lost two doctors — Dr Bishnu Prasad Chinara and Dr Swadhin Panda.

Dr Chinara and his wife Priyadarshini and Dr Panda and his wife Swikruti went to Bengaluru together on July 26. After celebrating Bishnu’s birthday on July 27 in Bengaluru, they went to Wayanad and reached there on July 29. All of them were swept away in the landslide.

However, both Priyadarshini and Swikruti were rescued.