Major Herath with a mongoose. Two varieties indigenous to Sri Lanka and India
In an experiment described to be a first of its kind in the world, Sri Lanka is using the wood-dwelling, extremely agile mongoose to detect hidden explosives.
The island has four species of mongoose, with beady eyes and long furry tails, widely seen as a pest, with legends weaved around its deadly battles with cobras and also becoming a part of myths by its association with some deities.
Major Supun Herath of the Sri Lankan Army’s Engineers Corps who is heading the pilot project with nine others, tells the BBC Sinhala Service that the best species equipped with sharpest ability to smell explosives is the Brown Mongoose (Herpestes fuscus) and Grey/Indian Grey Mongoose (Herpestes Edwards) that are indigenous to Sri Lanka and India.
“We conducted research with both brown mongoose and the grey variety and we have found that the former is best for the job,” he says. The brown mongoose has the rare ability to smell explosives four feet above their normal sniffing range and more than 30 cm over its natural abilities to detect material buried under the earth.
The four main species found in Sri Lanka are the ruddy mongoose, grey, stripe-necked variety (Herpetes vitticollis) and ruddy common mongoos (Herpestes smithii).
As far back as 2007 a US-based Sri Lankan professional Thrishantha Nanayakkara mapped out an entire minefield without setting foot in it with the help of a robot hitched to a mongoose.
Nanayakkara, a visiting scholar at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a 2008-09 Radcliffe Institute fellow, picked an indigenous mongoose for its temperament, size (roughly 2.5 kg, light enough to step on a mine without detonating it), and sense of smell (able to detect explosives three meters away). He equipped his robot (roughly a meter long and half a meter wide) with a harness to keep the mongoose under control and a video camera to record its findings, according to Harvard magazine.
He is perfecting at Harvard what he once demonstrated in practice. Developed with a team of students at the University of Moratuwa, the robot’s characteristics (such as size, speed, and sensing ability) have now been programmed into a minefield simulation that includes obstacles like trees or rough terrain.
According to Major Herath his team is conducting extensive research on whether the mongoose can be used to detect drugs. If successful mongoose will turn out to be an economic boon as presently the country spends lot of money to import trained dogs to trace buried mines and detect drugs.
In Sinhala mongoose are known as Mugatiya and Hothambuwa. The term mongoose is likely derived from the Marathi name mungūs, according to Wikipedia. The animal seen on the lap of Kuvera, the guardian of treasures according to Indian mythology, is a mongoose.
An article in Indian Express written by a wildlife expert mentions that the mongoose’s fine hair is much sought after by artists because they make for excellent paintbrushes. “It’s a big business and mongooses have been mercilessly hunted down, trapped, stoned or beaten to death in their thousands for their hair. They say it takes 50 mongooses to produce 1 kg of paintbrush quality hair.”
The animals are now protected by the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India. In Sri Lanka they are found almost everywhere and are not classified as facing extinction. (newstrails.com)
