THIS DOG IS HAVING ITS DAY

Lean and mean, the Caravan and Pashmi are becoming prized as guard dogs and bringing their breeders a tidy profit in the villages of Latur in Maharashtra

- Kiran D. Tare

In canine lineages, one can follow traces of human endeavour, as packs of dogs followed groups of people into new lands. A similar pattern has had some surprising consequences in a parched corner of the Deccan plateau where a distinctive breed of dogs has enlivened a struggling rural economy. A keen look framed by a narrow muzzle, a proud, tall bearing supported by spindly, strong legs, a stomach that curves inward in an ‘s’, and a latent fierceness it’s too glad to exhibit—you just cannot miss a Pashmi. In its menacing growl, owners read an iron-cast guarantee.

At Janwal village in Maharashtra’s Latur district, the stone-walled house of farmer Tanaji Pawar is stacked with sacks of soyabean and jowar. With the first spells of rain, sowing for the kharif season will start. But as farmers across India worry if inflation could force up prices of fertilisers and pesticides, Pawar isn’t that concerned about his ‘cash in hand’ for such farming essentials. ‘Malhar’, his pet dog of the Pashmi breed, took care of that.

Pawar charges Rs 5,000 from villagers who bring their female Pashmis for breeding with Malhar. As a purebred stud, Malhar contributes Rs 2-2.5 lakh to Pawar’s household annually. The breeding season starts from Dussehra and lasts till Diwali. “The money I earn from breeding covers almost 25 per cent of farming expenses, such as labour charges.

That has reduced my dependency on bank loans,” says Pawar, who is in his 40s, heads a family of four and owns 45 acres of farmland.