Chandigarh: Chandigarh Police have become
the first police force in the country to acquire an Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to keep a strict vigil on the movements
of criminals and trouble mongers.
"We have procured the UAV for four months on trial basis.
'Golden Hawk' will be with the city police by mid-May...DRDO
officials have already demonstrated the machine at Sarangpur
village on the city's outskirts recently," Chandigarh IG P K
Srivastava told reporters here today.
UAVs, equipped with a high-power small camera to record
the activities on the ground, are mainly used by armies around
the world for surveillance and reconnaissance purposes.
The remote-operated machine is attached to a computer for
keeping surveillance of a particular area. The device, which
generally weighs three kg, flies approximately 100 m from
ground for about half-an-hour.
Last year, the Centre had decided to arm the Chhattisgarh
Police with UAVs to snoop on Naxals in the aftermath of the
Dantewada ambush which left 76 policemen dead.
However, the project had to be shelved after the UAVs
failed to track the movement of the ultras in the terrain
having thick foliage.
“'Golden Hawk' weighs 625 gm. Depending on its success,
bigger UAVs will be procured later on for surveillance
purposes," Srivastava said.
"We are the first urban police force to have an UAV,"
he said, adding that the machine would be of immense help
during demonstrations and VVIPs visit.
'Golden Hawk', having a speed of 10 to 15 m per second,
has an operational range of two km. It has an operational
altitude of 100 metres and can fly for 30 minutes, DRDO
scientist Harish Chandra said.
"It can down load images at night time as well. The
images captured by the camera are transmitted to the Ground
Control Room (GCR). After flying for half-and-hour, the
machine automatically returns to its base," he said.
However, the device cannot be used in stormy and rainy
conditions, he said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 19:02