Bird menace has forced the authorities of the Gannavaram airport here to resort to various measures like using Zon (sound) scare guns to address the problem. Several preventive measures are being taken in order to ensure passenger safety.
Birds gathering near the runway pose serious problems and also affect flight schedules, as was evident from the instance of Jet Airways aircraft getting cancelled after getting hit by a hawk on Wednesday.
It is a routine problem at many airports and Gannavaram airport is prone to this bird activity because of the agricultural fields and human habitations nearby.
Officials say that they have to employ people to physically shoo away the birds besides sending special vehicles to address the problem at the time of landing or take off by any aircraft.
Airport manager V.K. Patil says that utmost care is being taken to scare away birds during flight arrivals and departures. Zon guns have been very useful in this regard.
With an increase in number of flights operated to and from Gannavaram airport in recent months, the officials are forced to give more attention to bird-hit problem. The Airports Authority of India uses many devices in addition to sound guns for effectively dealing with the bird hazard on airfields.
The loud shot-like sounds created by Zon guns reaching intensities of 100 to 120 decibels would scare away birds in an area of one to five acres. These sound guns are proved effective on airfields and they are used even more intensively in agriculture fields where birds and predators pose serious threat to crops and fruit plantations.
Usually, the birds gather on the airfield and also on the runway to prey on miniature creatures and worms on the surface of the soil.
Birds of prey like kites and hawks accumulate in large numbers sometimes making it difficult to run flight operations.
If the problem persists and increases, the officials are considering taking some more measures to scare away the birds.
There are many traditional and modern methods to solve bird hazard and nuisance, and scarecrow in the form of a human figure is one of the popular options.
Also, a silhouette figure looking like birds of prey is used to shoo away smaller birds.
