The number of incidents of animal and bird hits has doubled in the country between 2019 and 2023, civil aviation ministry data have revealed at a time a probe is underway to ascertain the cause behind the plane crash in Ahmedabad.
Besides birds, mammals such as bats, stray dogs and pigs can pose a serious risk to aircraft.
While Delhi was the most affected airport followed by Mumbai in gross number of strikes, the rise in hits in recent years was the steepest at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, from where the London-bound flight took off on Thursday before barreling into the residential complex of a medical college.
Calcutta has witnessed fewer hits compared with other metros, but is the only one showing an increasing trend among such cities in recent years.
“The analysis of data of wildlife (bird/animal) strikes indicates that the maximum number of strikes to the airplanes occurs during the landing and takeoff phases,” a document of the civil aviation ministry stated.
Senior officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) say that the norms and standard operating procedure (SOP) to reduce such collisions have largely remained on paper.
According to the data tabled in the Rajya Sabha in end-2023 by then junior civil aviation minister V.K. Singh, the total number of animal hits to flights in the country stood at 535 in 2019, or around 1.5 hits per day. The number increased nearly 100 per cent in five years by October 31, 2023, to 1,123, or over three hits per day.
The data reveal that Ahmedabad airport ranked third in the country in terms of animal strikes from 2019 to 2023, with 266 hits, behind table-topper Delhi with 609 hits and Mumbai with 295 hits. However, the rise in the number of bird hits at Ahmedabad airport between 2022 and 2023 was the highest among major Indian airports. Ahmedabad had 39 hits in 2022 and 81 in 2023.
Calcutta, with 154 hits between 2019 and 2023, is seventh on the list of “most-hit airports” but is the only major metro with a rising trend in bird hits, which stood at 45 in 2023 against 31 in 2022.
“Bird strikes are a serious aviation safety concern, and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has taken steps to address this issue. We take multiple steps like cutting grasses, using bird catchers and blasting fireworks to prevent bird incursion, but can hardly do anything to stop the menace beyond the airport areas,” said Kalyan Choudhury, retired executive director of air traffic control in India.
A senior AAI official at Calcutta airport said guidelines and SOPs were in place, but they had little control beyond airport areas. “While there should have been at least 1km of buffer zone after the dedicated airport area, neither the government nor the local administration has promulgated any specific norm to control birds in the vicinity,” the official said.
He said shops and markets close to airports and the dumping of waste in the vicinity attracted birds. The Belgharia waste dump site and tall trees close to Calcutta airport play a major role in attracting birds close to the runways, he said.