Garth and Vora bow at the Ganga Gate before every shift — meet Vishwanath Dham's two sniffer dogs

Long before the first queue forms at Kashi Vishwanath Dham, two of the temple's most reliable staff members are already at the Ganga Gate — and, by a habit their handlers have kept up, they are made to bow towards Baba before they start work. Garth is an eight-year-old Labrador. Vora is a nine-year-old German Shepherd. Between them they are the sniffer dogs who walk the Dham's corridors through the Sawan crowds. Both were bought and trained by the Uttar Pradesh Police, sourced through the Kennel Club of India in Chennai, and both can pick up explosives, narcotics, wildlife remains and concealed weapons. Two head constables work as their handlers, an attendant looks after their day-to-day care, and a police-line vehicle brings them to the campus and takes them back. Each works an eight-hour shift, so that between them the pair covers the Dham from opening to closing — a longer stretch than usual through Sawan, when the footfall multiplies. The care that goes into them is unglamorous and specific: a daily diet of mixed vegetables, roti and milk that works out to about four hundred rupees per dog. Garth already has two gold medals from the Director General of Police for his work in detecting explosives. Most pilgrims will pass the two of them without a second look, which is more or less the point — the quietest part of Kashi's Sawan security arrangement walks on four legs.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala — Varanasi