Stepping up surveillance to prevent ganja cultivation in inaccessible areas of forests, the Narcotics Intelligence Bureau CID (NIB-CID) of Tamil Nadu Police used drone for aerial inspection in Coimbatore. On Wednesday, the NIB-CID team inspected forest areas near Siruvani using a hired drone.
NIB-CID DSP P R. Vincent said that it was the first time a drone was used for inspection of forest areas in Coimbatore.
“The place inspected were those areas where NIB-CID had detected cultivation of ganja in the past. Chances are high for such places to be chosen for replantation. The inspection was done in this time of the year as it is ideal time for harvesting the plants,” said Mr. Vincent.
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While Kalkothi hills, near Siruvani, was inspected on Wednesday, similar operation was carried out at Sembukkarai and Dhumanur, near Anaikatti, on Tuesday.
“We had instructions from Additional Director General of Police Abhash Kumar that drone could be ideal to inspect difficult areas in the forest. We had earlier used drones for similar exercise in Dindigul,” said Mr. Vincent and added that the areas inspected in Coimbatore did not have ganja cultivation.
The drone was operated from an elevated open space.
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Visuals from the camera attached to the device were watched live by the NIB-CID team.
Naxal Special Division and Forest Department assisted the NIB-CID team to conduct the inspections.