According to a senior officer, who has spent 20 years in the department, mounted police's training has always been different from other departments. It is said a police horse is trained in such a way that it won't hurt a human even in the tensest of situations. "The horse will only push men away with its buttocks, and being such a tall animal, people feel scared of it naturally," the veterinary doctor of the department told us.
Earlier, most horses used to be bought from England or Australia. Now, in order to make the department more cost effective, the horses are bought from farms of Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Haryana and Punjab. "The average price for a single horse is `2 lakh. We also get huge support from trainers and managers of the Royal Calcutta Turf Club. They gift us a lot of horses after their racing careers are over. I think the last time we bought horses from outside was 10 years ago," said an officer, adding, Supratim Sarkar, Joint Commissioner of Police, Headquarters, told us, "The mounted police is a heritage department of KP. We are very proud of it as they has always done very well in managing even the most crowded processions, ceremonies or gatherings. During British rule, the mounted police used to maintain law and order across the city and also regulate traffic. Now that we have become more organised, mounted police has its own set of duties — which they perform very efficiently." *Did you know?* It is a common perception that horses do not sleep. However, we were told that horses sleep and even snore if you set a straw bed for them *Hi Gautam,* *This newspaper article was sent to me from a friend in Kolkata. Both my father and my uncle served in the Calcutta Mounted Police a long time ago. It is an interesting article the only correction needed is that no CMP horse replacements (called 'remounts') ever came from England. British Army cavalry remounts usually came from Ireland. In the early to middle 19th. century cavalry regiments coming out to India used to be moved to Hounslow Cavalry Barracks in Middlesex (not far from today's Heathrow Airport). They used the large open space of Hounslow Heath (on which the airport now stands) for cavalry manouvres and exercises. When the regiment was brought up to strength (no regiment went overseas under-strength) it trooped by road down to Southampton where they embarked for the nine month voyage to India. They landed in Madras from where they were immediately stationed at Trimulgherry. The cooler climate of an elevated post allowed the animals to acclimatise before being transferred onwards to other posts in India. Towards the end of the 19th. century it was realised that Australian 'Walers' - wild horses from New South Wales - made good reliable cavalry chargers. They were 16 hands and larger, inured to a hot dry climate and immune to a host of insect bites and infections. Imported 'Walers' used to be landed at the Calcutta docks where they were housed in cavalry stable in the nearby suburb of Hastings. In fact the road on which they stood is stilled called Remount Road. I was serving in the Calcutta Police in 1965 when the last shipment of Australian Walers was received by the Calcutta Mounted Police. I have attached a picture of Inspector Robert Alan Houston, the last Anglo-Indian officer in charge of the Calcutta Mounted Police on Australian Waler "Battle", a 17-hand chestnut.*
