The Indian pariah dog, also known as the Indian native dog, INDog, Nadan, South Asian pye dog, Desi Kutta, and Neri Kutta, is a

landrace A landrace is a Domestication, domesticated, locally adapted, often traditional variety of a species of animal or plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural and cultural Environment (biophysical), environment of agric ...

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

native to the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. They are Informally referred by people often by similar names across india as bholi, kalia, chotu, langda , bhura , lambu, kalu, pintu, raju, sheru etc They have erect ears, a wedge-shaped head, and a curved tail. It is easily trainable and often used as a

guard dog A guard dog or watchdog is a dog used to watch for and guard people or property against unwanted human or animal intruders. A dog trained to attack intruders is known as an attack dog. History Dogs have been used as guardians since ancient ...

and

police dog A police dog, also known as a K-9 (phonemic abbreviation of canine), is a dog that is trained to assist police and other law enforcement officers. Their duties may include searching for drugs and explosives, locating missing people, findin ...

. This dog is an example of an ancient group of dog known as pye-dogs. There is archaeological evidence that the dog was present in Indian villages as early as 4,500 years ago. Though most street dogs in the Indian subcontinent are in fact Indian pye-dogs, the names for this breed are often erroneously used to refer to all urban South Asian stray dogs despite the fact that some

free-ranging dog A free-ranging dog is a dog that is not confined to a yard or house. Free-ranging dogs include street dogs, village dogs, stray dogs, feral dogs, etc., and may be owned or unowned. The global dog population is estimated to be 900 million, of w ...

s in the Indian subcontinent do not match the "pariah type" and may not be pure indigenous dogs but mixed breeds, especially around locations where European colonists historically settled in India, due to admixtures with European dog breeds.

Appearance

It is a medium-sized dog of square to slightly rectangular build and short coat. The dog has a double coat, a coarse upper coat, and a soft undercoat. The most commonly observed colours are browns, ranging from dark to reddish-brown, with or without white markings. Solid blacks are rare, but some dogs are pied. Shaded coats, brindles, solid white and dalmatian-type spotting are never seen in pure populations. These may be a sign of mixing with modern breeds, as they are only seen in dogs in cities and other sites where non-native dogs have been introduced. The head is medium-sized and wedge-shaped. The muzzle is pointed and is of equal or slightly greater length than the head. The neck is noble and the forequarters are erect. Hindquarters are minimally angled. The trot is short. The eyes are almond-shaped and dark brown in colour. The ears are held erect and are pointed at the tips, with a broad base, set low on the head, and the tail is curled and held high when excited.

Names

The namesake of this breed was given during the British Raj in India after the Pariah tribe of the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

. From the

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

word ''pye'' or ''paë'' and Hindi ''pāhī'' meaning 'outsider', the Indian pariah dog is sometimes referred to as the pye-dog (also spelt ''pie'' or ''pi'') and the Indian native dog. It is popularly known as Desi Kutta or Desi Dog (which derives from the

Hindi-Urdu Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in North India and Pakistan as the lingua franca of the region. It is also spoken by the Deccani-speaking community in the Deccan plateau. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standa ...

word ''

desi Desi ( or or ; Hindustani language, Hindustani: देसी , , ) also Deshi, is a loose term used to describe the ethnic groups in South Asia, peoples, culture of South Asia, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and their Sout ...

'', meaning ''native''), as well as the Indi-dog or In-dog (in various spellings). It was referred to in the works of

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

as the "yellow pariah dog".

History

The pariah dog of India is an ancient autochthonous

that is found all over

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and even beyond

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. A pariah-like dog skull was discovered in the

ancient India Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentism, Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; ...

n site of

Mohenjo-daro Mohenjo-daro (; , ; ) is an archaeological site in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan. Built 2500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and one of the world's earliest major city, cities, contemp ...

and prehistoric rock art depicting a dog of similar type has been found in the

Bhimbetka rock shelters The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period. It exhibits the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of the Stone Age star ...

. It was featured on

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

's film, ''Search for the First Dog'' along with the other ancient types such as the

Canaan Dog The Canaan Dog (, ) is a dog breed developed in the early 20th century from semiwild pariah dogs that were the descendants of animals present in the region since biblical times. It is the national dog of Israel and can be found in Israel, Jordan, L ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and the Australian dingo. The Indian pye-dog was introduced to the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

with the establishment of a penal colony there, dogs having been previously unknown to the native

Andamanese The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in Indi ...

. Despite the Indian pariah dog being highly intelligent and easily trainable, the breed was intentionally downplayed during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

by merchants who wished to sell their foreign breeds within the country. Their popularity in the West in recent years, however, has resulted in hundreds of dogs being exported out of the Indian subcontinent. In 2015, a breed standard was published in the Indian Kennel Gazette, the publication of Kennel Club of India, and the dog has been recognized by the Primitive and Aboriginal Dog Society (PADS), a worldwide grouping of enthusiasts based in the US. Some in the society view these dogs as a risk citing their increasing population in India in recent years. They consider these dogs as menace and nuisance owing to constant barking and biting people. The numbers of dog bites and deaths due to dog attacks are increasing every year. Since these dogs are largely not vaccinated, they frequently carry rabies. Only a few island territories of India, eg,

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...

are rabies free despite having pariah dog population.Indian pariah dogs are one of the oldest dog breeds in existence today.

Temperament

Pariah dogs are very alert and social. They are used as

s and

s, being very territorial and defensive. They need good socializing as pups and do well with families and children if provided with such socialization. They are highly intelligent and easily trainable; to this end, veterinarian Premlata Choudhary stated that "desi dogs are much more intelligent and hardy than most pedigreed dogs that people spend so much money on."

Health

Being a naturally evolved breed, they have very few health concerns and thrive with minimal maintenance in suitable climates. The skin needs very little grooming and the dogs themselves are relatively clean. They have little body odour. Genetic health ailments like hip dysplasia are extremely rare, since there is no inbreeding and the dominant genes that aid their survival are naturally selected over time. Most of their deaths occur due to accidents on the roads and railway tracks, starvation, drinking polluted water, tumors in the body, snakebites, or harm from humans.

Gallery

File:Indie_Dog.jpg, Domesticated Indie dog File:A Pet Indian Pariah Dog.jpg, A pet Indian Pariah Dog in

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

File:An Indian Pariah Dog.jpg, A stray Indian Pariah Dog File:Indog Pune Stray.jpg, Stray pariah dog in India File:Indian Pariah Dog named Scratchy standing.jpg, Pariah dog File:Nibri and jhibri.jpg, Puppies

References

External links

INDog: The Indian Pariah Dog
at InDog.co.in
Primitive & Aboriginal Dog Society

Life as a pariah sees it
-

Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

Dog Breeds In India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pariah Dog Dog breeds originating in India Dog breeds originating in Pakistan Feral dogs Dog landraces Animal breeds originating in Afghanistan da:Pariahhund fr:Chien paria he:פאריה ja:野犬 no:Pariahunder fi:Paariakoira sv:Pariahund zh:流浪犬