Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a drone and it’s hovering over Eco Tourism Park! The authorities have imported two drones recently and they have been floating over the New Town park, with their in-built cameras providing live security surveillance from the sky. 

Drones are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) operated by remote control and the ones in Eco Park are the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced models. They were imported from China in January and are being deployed in the park since the end of February. 

“These drones will be a shot in the arm for security personnel in the park as they will act as their eyes and ears,” said Debashis Sen, chairman cum managing director of Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), that is in charge of the park. “We procured them after witnessing their capabilities at a demonstration held in Eco Park recently.”

The drones will be flown mainly on the banks of the lake on regular days but would be used elsewhere, as and when required, on crowded days. An assistant engineer of Hidco has been tasked with training a team to fly the drone. “Since it is capable of flying at quite an altitude, is immensely manouverable and can relay live video streams to our smart phones, any untoward incident can be reported to security personnel almost immediately,” said the engineer.

Built to impress 
The Phantom 3 Advanced drones have been manufactured by a Chinese company called DJI. The drone and its ground remote-controller are both Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled and use 36 satellites to determine their location and assist while hovering. 

So even if the person handling the remote fails to notice an obstruction in the flight path, the GPS would warn the drone and it would automatically fly around it and avoid collision. 

The drone can fly for around 20 minutes with a fully-charged battery pack, although there is provision for adding extra batteries to extend flight time. The batteries can be recharged like on a mobile phone and currently at Eco Park the drones are being used alternatively so both don’t get drained out at once. 

The drones have a flying range of 5km and it constantly keeps track of the distance travelled and its battery life. Accordingly it will fly back to the controller before the battery dies out. 

The take-off and landing are said to be the toughest for aerial vehicles but the Phantom 3 Advanced does both automatically. In fact, it records the co-ordinates of its take-off point and lands at the same point later. 

The drone can also be programmed to follow the user or fly in circles at a predetermined height and radius and is capable of flying on a flight path following GPS track points provided by the operator.

The imaging system is state-of-the-art too. It can capture both still photographs and videos in 1080p (1920x1080) resolution. The 12-mega-pixel camera fixed on the aircraft is equipped with an f/2.8 lens that has a 94-degree wide field of view. But there’s no flash and after dark the camera depends on ambient lighting. It can pick up sounds when recording videos and is resistant to light rain too.

The location of the quadcopter, along with live images and videos, can be viewed through a mobile app that can be attached on the drone’s controller. 

The Phantom 3 Advanced is available on e-commerce websites and Amazon lists its price as Rs 1,21,239.70.

View from the top
Previously the domain of military applications, drones are now being widely used by civilians for capturing photographs and videos from angles that are difficult using conventional camera set ups. 

The government of Madhya Pradesh uses drones to protect Royal Bengal tigers from poachers and Calcutta Police uses them too. During last year’s fire at Chatterjee International building, drones helped minimise damage. Drones were on duty at the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s swearing in too.

At Eco Park however, the drones’ primary task would be to track eve- teasers and jilted lovers. 

On Valentine’s Day this year, a youth jumped into the lake after a tiff with his girlfriend. The boy didn’t know how to swim and started splashing about, gasping for breath even as lifeguards pushed their way through the crowd to rescue him. 
The lifeguards are part of Bidhannagar Police’s Disaster Management Group and given that the lake is almost 100-ft deep in some places, they have to keep a hawk’s eye out to ensure no one falls in. 

There is a police outpost at the park but given that on New Year’s Day the park recorded footfall of 1,00,000-plus visitors, talks are on to open a full-fledged police station there. Hidco employs around 50 guards for the park.

Still, reports of petty theft and eve-teasing trickle in. “A group of boys had passed lewd comments at me once when I went to Eco Park. I rushed to the police outpost but it was quite far from the site of the incident. So by the time I returned with a cop the group had fled,” said Sahana Chakraborty, a model who stays in Salt Lake. 

Drones should be able to identify such culprits in the act. 

One for the road 
The township that is in the race to win India Smart Cities Challenge is also considering drones to help traffic management. 

“If the pilot project in Eco Park proves successful, we may use drones to monitor important traffic junctions and crowded places like Rabindra Tirtha, Nazrul Tirtha, New Town Plaza and Eco Urban Village on holidays,” said Sen.
 

To drone or not to drone

Civilian use of drones is banned in Calcutta but Salt Lake and New Town have some leeway. 

“In general, flying drones require permits from the directorate general of civil aviation. But if someone flies them in his own property it is okay. Privacy issues may arise if drones are flown near others’ houses. We haven’t banned drones in our area yet,” said Nishat Pervez, the deputy commissioner, headquarters, Bidhannagar police commissionerate.

Tips from a pro
Photographer Rajesh Gupta who has shot a wedding in Eco Tourism Park’s Eco Island recently, ask beginners to be wary of ramming into lampposts and tree branches. “Also invest in extra propellers and battery packs for longer flight time,” he said. “And respect other’s privacy. “I have seen families filming themselves using drones in Thailand. I hope laws are changed to allow Indians to click using drones freely.”

To what other uses in your view should a drone be put to?
Write to saltlake@abpmail.com or 
The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001