Wild animals a menace for Nagpur airport

NAGPUR: The orange city’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, spread over an area of 1460 acres, is home to wild animals - neelgais, cheetals and wild boars, to name a few.

While the bird-hits are a rare phenomenon, animals straying onto the runway are a routine - a menace that airport authorities have got tired of.

With about a third of the airport area under thick forest cover, authorities have long been pleading with the forest department to help them tide over the menace of wild animals. “It’s a crime to kill these animals, but they could pose a threat to the flights, as on Monday,” said an official in the Air Traffic Control.

“We have written letters and sent reminders to the forest authorities asking them to get these animals caught and clear the area of them as they pose a great danger to the flights, particularly in evening,” AAI officials revealed to DNA. “But they haven’t paid any heed to our plea and we are concerned about this issue.”

Senior officials informed that the straying of animals have delayed the take-off and landing of many an aircraft in the past. “We take every precaution and do checks of the runway round the clock to avert any untoward incident, but one needs to clear the area of the animals, since the air traffic is now increasing,” they said.

The Monday’s dramatic bird-hit incident that forced the Jet Airways flight carrying the Australian and Indian cricket teams to Mumbai, has already set the airport authorities moving on a plan to clear the vastly spread airport area of the wild grass around the operational area.

“We’ve floated the tenders and the process of weeding out the grass from the runway has begun,” airport director Suresh Borkar told DNA.

This was only the second such incident over the Nagpur’s flight information region this year, according to Airport Manager Subhash Prajapati. “It’s a rare phenomenon, since there is no human habitation around the airport area.”