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Swanky Nagpur airport faces threat from wild animals

The upgraded international airport at Nagpur may look swanky, but wild animals in the vicinity of the sprawling aerodrome premises continue to threaten flying operations.

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NAGPUR: The upgraded international airport at Nagpur may look swanky, but wild animals in the vicinity of the sprawling aerodrome premises continue to threaten flying operations.

The latest scare came on Tuesday night, when an Indian Airlines flight IC 736 with 27 passengers aboard ran over a pig (some say wild boar), which had strayed into the runway, during take-off at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, official sources said. The city airport, spread over an area of 1,460 acres, is home to wild animals like nilgais, cheetals and wild boars.

The incident did not affect the schedule of the Bangkok-Nagpur-Hyderabad flight. “There’s a mishap waiting to happen here, due to the wild life menace,” warned a senior officer. “Pigs have become a problem.”

The pilot of the aircraft reported the matter to the Air Traffic Control immediately after the incident, the third instance within a month of an animal straying into the runway of the airport. Earlier this month, an Indian Air Force transport aircraft IL-76 and a Jet Airways’ Delhi-bound flight was obstructed by stray animals, sources said.

In October last year, a bird-hit had forced a Jet flight carrying the Australian and Indian cricket teams to Mumbai, to land minutes after take-off, giving a minor scare to the passengers. The authorities cleared the wild grass around the operational area after that incident.

The authorities had also installed hi-tech ‘zon guns’, an LPG cylinder-operated device with a rotating barrel that booms roughly every 30-40 seconds, near the runway to scare away animals and birds from the operational area. But the guns have clearly not served their purpose. Two pigs were crushed under the wheels of an Indian Air Force IL-76 aircraft while it was landing at 10.30 pm on May 1.

About a third of the airport area is under thick forest cover and authorities have been pleading with the forest department to clear the are of the wild animals. “We have written letters and sent reminders to the forest authorities about the grave threat these animals pose to the flights,” a senior officer said. “It’s a crime to kill these animals; we can’t do that, but they pose threat to the flights,” said an official in the Air Traffic Control.

Senior officials revealed that animals straying into the runway had delayed take-off and landing of aircraft in the past. “We take every precaution: we check the runway round the clock to avert any untoward incident. But flights can be safe only if the area is cleared of the animals,” an official said.
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