Kolkata: In a bid to tackle the growing cases of Dengue and Chikungunya in the city, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has procured ‘Destroyer’ drones to identify larvae and destroy them.
KMC decided to employ drones after a ground survey in January where it was found out that several of the heritage buildings in the city facing rain water accumulation remain inaccessible due to their dilapidated condition. There were other high rise buildings in the city where reaching the rooftop weren’t possible on a regular basis.
The state has been tackling with menace of dengue with the toll reaching 23 in August. As per Union Health Ministry, West Bengal has reported the highest number of dengue deaths in the country with 5,639 dengue cases reported in West Bengal till August 31, 2019.
Therefore KMC came up with the idea of ‘Destroyer Drones’ to tackle the problem in a city as huge as 51,000 acres of land.
Deputy Mayor of KMC, Atin Ghosh said, “We have identified several areas which are difficult to access and possibility of water accumulation is high. Therefore, we have procured special ‘Destroyer Drones’ which will identify the mosquito and its larvae and kill them instantly. It needs a special training to operate the drones and therefore on Thursday (November 21) we will have a demonstration at the roof top of KMC headquarters in Kolkata.”
The ‘Destroyer Drones’ will be equipped with a pesticide tank, sensor and spraying system to identify larvae of Aedes Aegypti mosquito and kill them on spot. The drones can be manually handled or set on a fixed GPS defined route. A special team will monitor the drone operation.
Earlier, KMC used drones only to take pictures of dengue infested areas but with the recent move the destroyer drones could identify the areas and also kill larvae on the spot.
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