This Bird is now in the catbird seat

Drones in India are looking out of their nests, from new possibilities to new deployments, reality-checks and new stratospheric ambitions

- PRATIMA HARIGUNANI

Droning on about drones might have been boring just a few years back. But with Kisana drones covering new agriculture answers under its wings (like crop health checks, precision agriculture, and topographic surveys by Garuda), Assam using these birds for wildlife conservation (surveillance and anti-poaching, in efforts with RMSI), drones being used for D-Commerce and even for crowd management (Jagannath Rath Yatra), it looks like this canary could finally be out of the coal mine and in a gold mine.

Some recent deployments and pilots affirm that drones have overcome many incipient struggles, such as adoption hesitation, practical implementation hurdles, and a lack of strong use cases. Imagine drones managing colossal crowds, last-mile e-commerce deliveries, and saving forests and what they nurture.

NEW SKIES, NEW AERODYNAMICS

Recently, DTDC Express announced the launch of dronebased deliveries. It has inked a strategic partnership with Skye Air Mobility to use drones to advance what is possible with its physical network of 16,000+ channel partners. The idea is to boost the management of approximately 155 million parcels annually with what it hopes would be an agile and hassle-free delivery that may also help with minimum carbon emissions and reduced traffic congestion.

Consider how the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) provided a quadcopter to the forest department in Similipal Tiger Reserve, Odisha, with the capability to track movements and enable quick aerial support when required. Notably, drones are also emerging as stronger answers than traditional monitoring tools to combat forest fires in many places like Silent Valley National Park, Kerala. And just a few weeks back, we heard about drones now handling congestion and crowds at an event as massive as the Rath Yatra.