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Agartala, Sept 2: Tripura police will soon launch full-fledged use of drone technology through trained operators for identification and mapping of cannabis plantation largely grown in the hilly, sloppy and inaccessible terrains.
“On pilot basis, training has been imparted to some operators of the state police in South Tripura district. Sabroom and Belonia are two bordering subdivisions in the district that are prone to cross border smuggling and cannabis cultivation. Advanced drones that have a wide angle camera view are being devised for the task of locating the cannabis plantations”, a senior official of the state police department has said.
This step will prevent direct conflict between the security forces and the local communities that are engaged in such illegal activities, the official hoped. Even as cannabis cultivation is banned it generates good employment in the rural areas. People generally resist police and security forces from entering the locations where cannabis is grown on a large scale to ensure that the parallel economic cycle does not get hurt.
“Use of drones will help the police locate the cannabis plantations that are ideally grown deep in the forest or low lying lands where police operation becomes a tough task. If the police and security agencies could have an idea of the location and size of the plantation, they could plan an operation in accordance with the coordinates shared by the drones”, the official added.
According to sources in the police department, a significant number of cops will be trained on the technological nitty-gritty of drone technology and its use. Already some batches have been trained by the experts. “The full scale use of drones for this purpose and other crime detection, crowd maintenance and other law and order issues will start with the next year”, a senior police officer told this reporter.