Financial Express: New Delhi: Tuesday, January 02, 2018.
While bidding
adieu to 2017 and welcoming 2018, the world was in full party mood. However,
for flyers there were some shocking facts about airports that were revealed
yesterday, the last day of 2017. In a shocking disclosure, it has been
disclosed that a number of wildlife strikes at all Indian airports increased by
nearly three times in the last seven years. Moreover, from January to October
2017 on an average more than three strikes a day were reported. The data was
put into light by Indian Express under the Right to Information (RTI) act. This
is despite government and aviation regulator’s aggressive measures to reduce
the number of wildlife strike incidents-including proactive measures against
illegal slaughterhouses, garbage dumps, regular inspection of areas surrounding
airports and stakeholder education.
Records
obtained from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reveals that 976
wildlife strikes were reported in the first 10 months of 2017. It is more than
double of what was experienced in 2010. In 2010 the number of wildlife strikes
was reported as 380.
Notably, as
per data sourced from the Airports Authority of India, the number of aircraft
movements has also increased over the years. In 2010, 13.69 lakh aircraft
movements were recorded, whereas in 2017 up to October, 18.37 lakh movements
were recorded. Landing and take-off of an aircraft are considered to be a
separate count of movement which means that one landing and one take-off of the
same aircraft on the same flight will be considered as two movements.
Although the
information pertaining to financial damages borne by airlines due to bird
strikes was not available, according to estimates, in the US, airlines incur up
to $1.2 billion in damages every year caused due to bird strikes. DGCA in its
response to the RTI said that a number of steps have been taken to reduce the
number of wildlife strikes at Indian airports. One of these steps is the
constitution of AEMCs by the DGCA at every airport with scheduled flights to
identify “sources of stray animals/bird attraction at the airport and take
necessary steps for bird strike prevention”.
“All the
state governments…have been apprised…regarding constitution of Airfield
Environment Management Committee (AEMC) headed by the Chief Secretary
/Commissioner or head of District, at airports. They have been advised that
AEMC should take proactive measures on time bound basis to ensure that no
illegal slaughter houses, garbage dumps, etc exist in the vicinity of airports,
which is a source of increased bird activity and may lead to wildlife strikes
to aircraft during approach/take-off,” the DGCA said in its response.
Apart from
the this, the UPA government in 2009, had constituted a National Bird
Committee, comprising senior officials from ministries of civil aviation,
environment and defence, along with representatives of airlines and airports.
This committee was formed to collect, analyse and monitor data related to bird
control programs at airports, and to impose penalties, or order compensation to
airlines, which suffer any damages due to bird strikes. Further, the DGCA also
noted in the RTI response that it had conducted inspections at 18 airports
“considered critical” with respect to wildlife strikes with the findings having
been addressed by the aerodrome operators.
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