A Saviour From The Skies

From real-time rubble scanning to hyper-local weather forecasting, this Kerala startup is building futuristic solutions

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In July 2024, when monstrous landslides tore through Chooralmala and Meppadi in Wayanad, rescue workers faced an almost impossible task—finding the living amid an ocean of mud and debris. In the end, 177 bodies were recovered, and another 77 were identified only through DNA analysis. It wasn't just the scale of the tragedy that shocked the state—it was how long it took to find them.

The absence of advanced sensing tools in disaster zones has become an all-too-familiar pattern. Just last week in Payyanamon, Pathanamthitta, rescue teams spent two days at a quarry site after a rockslide, eventually retrieving the body of a trapped worker. Early this month at Kottayam Medical College, a woman died beneath rubble while responders struggled to locate her in time; delays driven largely by poor visibility and a lack of detection tools.

That's the critical gap a small but ambitious startup from Thiruvananthapuram is now trying to fill—with a revolutionary device that may allow drones to 'see' through the earth.