A considerable decline has been reported in incidents of bird-hits at Delhi international airport, one of the busiest in the country. The airport concessionaire, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), has claimed a substantial decrease in the phenomenon thanks to technology and modern equipment which kept birds at bay. DIAL officials took help of equipments like scare crow bio-acoustic system, six shot launchers and acoustic guns. They claimed that putting in place teams of Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard inspectors or BASHM, which guard the three operational runways of the Delhi airport, deployment of about 80 bird chasers on both sides of operational runways and 12 sharpshooters armed with acoustic guns and engagement of a wildlife team to capture stray animals in the airside has helped in reducing the bird-hits.
Bird hits down to half
DIAL CEO I. Prabhakara Rao said till 2008-09 the airport recorded 67-68 hits each year whereas the number dropped by almost half in 2010-11 to 34-36. “We understand the severity of the issue and have therefore taken up various measures to reduce the incidents and make Delhi airport a safe zone. The methods have proven to be exceptionally successful which can be seen by the reduction in the numbers of the bird-hit incidents over the past few years.” Incidentally, this year the number of bird hits are down to just nine.
“Keeping in mind the factors which attract birds in the first place we also try methods such as denial of food and water, prevention of perching, roosting and nesting in or around the airport and inspection of runways and side strips to check bird activity,” Mr. Prabhakara said, adding that controlled use of firecrackers of low, medium and high decibel and vehicles fitted with radiotelephony and scare-crow devices with distress calls are resorted to for scaring away the birds.
DIAL has also proposed some measures to prevent existence of birds in and round the airport including maintenance of grass not below 6 inches to prevent insect visibility as well as covering of drains within the airport boundary with wire meshing.
