The Mysuru City Police on Sunday seized a drone fitted with camera, deployed to capture aerial photographs of the Dasara cyclothon.
"We have taken possession of a drone at Chamundi Vihar stadium. We are still questioning the person who had deployed it," an official of Nazarbad Police station told The Hindu .
Mysuru City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda recently issued a statement banning the use of drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), citing a public notice issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) two years ago.
The warning against unapproved use of drones with cameras came after social media was flooded with photographs of Mysuru and its illuminated roads during Dasara.
Aerial photographs taken from drone cameras have caught the fancy of professional as well as hobbyist photographers.
Although drones or UAVs were deployed earlier in Mysuru by the police to monitor crowds and help maintain law and order during the Vijayadasami procession, the practice had been discontinued during the last two years.
Use of drone cameras is banned as per Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directions, said City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda. The DGCA notice of 2014 said the International Civil Aviation Organization was yet to come up with standards for certification and operation of UAV and UAS for civil use.
DGCA said, “The airspace over cities in India has high density of manned air traffic. Due to lack of regulation, operating procedures/standards and uncertainty of technology, UAS poses a threat for air collisions and accidents,” the notice said.
