Kochi police sniffer dog Lekha retires after 11 years: The canine heroes who made India proud

For 11 years, Lekha’s job was to follow a scent that most humans would never notice. Now, after more than a decade with the Kochi City Police, the Labrador has been given a ceremonial farewell — and a ponnada, the traditional shawl used to honour guests and achievers.

At the Thripunithura AR Camp, Kochi City DHQ Commandant V Suresh Babu honoured Lekha as she completed her service. According to a report on her retirement, Lekha joined the force at just three months old, underwent nine months of training and began active service in March 2016. She was part of the explosive detection unit and was deployed for bomb checks and VIP security operations.

It is a fitting send-off for a dog whose working life was spent in places where caution matters most.

Who is Lekha, the Kochi police sniffer dog?

Lekha's career was not about chasing criminals or appearing in dramatic police operations. Her speciality was detection: using her highly trained sense of smell to assist officers in security checks and searches.

Now, age has caught up with her. After 11 years of service, Lekha has retired and is set to move to Vishranthi, the retirement centre for police dogs at the Kerala Police Academy in Thrissur, according to the retirement report.

Her farewell also reflects something that is easy to overlook when we talk about policing: canine units are working partners, trained for highly specialised jobs and deployed alongside their handlers for years.

Kerala's police dogs have worked some of the country's toughest searches

Lekha is not the only Kerala police dog to have recently attracted attention. Maya and Murphy, two Belgian Malinois from Kerala Police's cadaver dog squad, were deployed after the 2025 Srisailam Left Bank Canal tunnel collapse in Telangana to search for workers trapped underground. The pair identified locations where rescuers subsequently recovered human remains, including the body of Gurpreet Singh.

Their record in Kerala was already significant. The dogs had been involved in searches linked to the 2022 Elanthoor human sacrifice case and the 2024 Wayanad landslides. During the Wayanad operation, they helped recover eight bodies and were later given medals of honour by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

From Kochi to Kashmir, India's canine force has a long record of service

Across the country, police and military dogs have repeatedly found themselves at the centre of extraordinary operations.

In 2022, Indian Army assault dog Axel was posthumously awarded a Mention-in-Despatches after he was killed during a counter-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district. The Army said Axel entered a building to locate a terrorist and sustained fatal gunshot wounds. The award was included in the official gallantry list.

Another Army dog, Mansi, a Labrador, was killed along with her handler Bashir Ahmed War while attempting to stop an infiltration bid in Kashmir in 2016. Mansi was reportedly awarded a posthumous Mention-in-Despatches, in what was described at the time as a rare honour for a canine.

And then there are the quieter retirements. In 2023, CISF sniffer dogs Rocky, Romeo and Sony were felicitated after more than eight years of service with the Delhi Metro unit. Rocky and Romeo attended the ceremony, while Sony could not because of ill health.

Why police dogs like Lekha matter long after the headlines fade

India's canine squads perform roles ranging from explosive and narcotics detection to crime tracking, search and rescue and identifying human remains. A 2026 Ministry of Home Affairs publication on the Tamil Nadu Police canine unit noted that the state's force alone had 267 dogs across explosive detection, crime detection, narcotics detection and search-and-rescue roles.

That makes Lekha's ponnada more than a ceremonial gesture.

For a dog that spent years walking into places precisely because something might be dangerous, retirement means something very different: no more security sweeps, no more searching for suspicious scents, no more working shifts.

Just a quieter second chapter, and a well-earned farewell.