By Jaison Wilson
New Delhi, Aug 14 (UNI) Incidents of mid-air conflicts between drones and aircraft are not uncommon across the world now a days.
Apart from some curiosity about it, this Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in a common man's concept is either toy-like equipment used to make videos or an entertainment device.
But in reality, drones can help reduce human intervention in sectors such as aviation. They can also be used to gather precise spatial data. It can help in agriculture sector to health sector. Drones can be use in food delivery to speedy transportation of human organs for donation purposes.
According to a study of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the drone market is estimated to touch 886 million dollars by 2021 in India. Very pertinently, it is estimated that around 500,000, mostly China-made, illegal drones are mushrooming up in the country.
"To counter the dangerous scenario, we have to create an indigenous drone ecosystem with proper measures in the country", Sai Pattabiram, CEO & Founder of Chennai-based Sree Sai Aerotech Innovations Pvt. Ltd. (SSAI) said while talking to UNI.
“Drones are like motorcycles. There could be hundreds of manufacturers for them and there can even be self-assembled drones,” Mr Pattabiram said. If a drone pops up in a busy airport in the country, who will be responsible? he asks.
“Incidents of drone violations in sensitive areas such as airports, army installations etc. are continuously on the rise across the globe. Airspace regulators are facing the task of regulating the millions of drones which have the potential to intrude the civilian airspace and cause serious damage", he said.
Mr Pattabiram also suggested some solutions to tackle the scenario.
A ‘Counter Drone’ product under the brand name of Zuppa is equipped to track route and altitude violations, tampering, crashes and can be commanded remotely by authorities to land in the event of geo-fence violations posing threat to airliners around airports.
Mr Pattabiram is in discussions with the government and hopes that his system will be considered for the GPS-based tracking of drones. "In order to stop the rising number of rogue drones, firstly we must made a regulation through a common platform and the other part is related to customs department. In the administration level, strict vigil needed to stop the flow of Chinese products to the country," he suggests.
Mr Pattabiram also hoped that the problem will be resolved with the new regulations by the end of this year.
The Central Government had banned the use of drones in October 2014. In the following years, though, it came to be seen as impractical. So, the government crafted a regulatory policy, which came into force on December 1, 2018.
The DGCA already drafted a “Drone Regulations 2.0” and awaiting for the finalisation. It has roped in the Directorate General of Aviation, National Security Guard, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Airport Authorities of India,Central Industrial Security Force and others to come up with measures to counter rogue drones.
UNI JW VT 1542 /1610