DRDO system can help check entry of stray animals on runways

NEW DELHI: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has offered a solution to the perennial problem of animals treading on airport runways in India. Its suggestion came after pigs were spotted on the runway of Nagpur airport after President Pranab Mukherjee’s aircraft landed there on September 15.

Aday after the incident, DRDO wrote to the civil aviation ministry saying that installation of a battlefield surveillance radar — a shortrange portable surveillance equipment designed by DRDO and produced by Bharat Electronics Ltd — can help check intrusion of stray animals into airports.

"This is the first time they have written to us proposing such a solution," said a civil aviation ministry official, who did not want to be named. "We need to examine the proposal first before taking a call."

The letter, seen by ET, said the battlefield surveillance radars will help detect movement around the airport and about 1,200 of these are being used by the Indian Army and the Border Security Force.

Aviation experts, however, suggest asimpler fix.

"The airport operator should have awall and fencing around the airport," said Shakti Lumba, a former pilot and head of operations at IndiGo. "Once your perimeter is intact, no animal would enter the runway. A radar is not surely the solution to keep the runway off animals."

On September 15, the pilot of the President’s plane, a Boeing 737, saw the pigs crossing the runway when the aircraft was taxiing towards the terminal building after landing.

The aviation ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation immediately ordered an inquiry, which is currently ongoing.