Kerala Police launch India's first Drone Forensic Lab & Research Centre

Thiruvananthapuram: At a time when drones have emerged as a major security threat in the country, the Kerala police on Friday (August 13) launched a first-of-its-kind Drone Forensic Lab and Research Centre with an aim to address the rising concerns in this regard.

Besides addressing the threat aspects of the drones, the lab-cum-research centre is also envisaged to look at the utility part of the unmanned aerial vehicles, news agency PTI quoted police sources saying.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the unique initiative at a function held in the SAP parade ground, which was followed by the display and air show of drones.

Vijayan, which speaking at the function, said there are information that anti-national forces are using drones for various destructive activities including spying, smuggling and terrorism.

He also mentioned about the recent drone strike at the Jammu airport by the terrorists.

"It is posing serious challenges to various security agencies including police now-a-days. The Kerala police is coming out with such a lab-cum-research centre in this backdrop," he said.

Not just the finding of unauthorised drones, but the production of aerial vehicles according to the demands of the police force to help the day-to-day policing would also be conducted at the new facility, the Chief Minister added.

It had already become clear how drones could be used productively for maintaining law and order situation and crowd management during the COVID-19 induced lockdown, he said.

Lavishing praise on the Kerala police, he said the state force is far ahead compared to their counterparts in many other states in using technology in investigation and day-to-day policing.

Earlier, ADGP Manoj Abraham said in a video message that an anti-drone system would be developed at the new facility to handle the threat of the unmanned aerial vehicles.

"The system will be capable of identifying all kinds of drones flying within a radius of five km," he said adding that it would be also capable of neutralising it.

Abraham, also the nodal officer of the Cyber Dome, said the lab-cum-research centre is going to be one of the innovative labs in the country and a first-of-its kind in this regard in the country.