For catching locusts and for saving crops, Anna University is taking a different route
Posted on: 03/Jun/2020 10:27:02 AM
Sometimes, thinking differently could bring huge success!!
In the recent times in states like Punjab, MP, UP, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan etc, locusts have been creating many issues for the farmers by destroying the crops. These states have been trying out various ways like bio-control etc to prevent locust attacking the crops.
Now, Anna University or AU has been thinking in a totally different manner to overcome the locust issue.
It must be noted that the department of aerospace engineering belonging Madras Institute of Technology or MIT of Anna University/AU have been preparing drones with nets to catch the locusts. Locusts are excellent source of proteins and they could be caught and used to make fertilizers.
This was according to Mr. K. Senthilkumar, director, Dr Kalam Advanced UAV Research Centre, Aerospace Engineering, MIT. He then spoke about how the department has been in touch with the government of Rajasthan and the Centre. To catch the locusts, 20 specially designed drones could be utilized.
Mapping of the locust density would be possible by the fleet of drones flying 300 m altitude carrying repelling system as payload. The ground vehicles would have traps and locust attracting agents. The location information given by the drone plus depending on the locust density the traps are moved.
In the next step, the automatic net ejection system comes into force and catches the locusts. One import ant information is considering an average mass of 20 to 30 gms per locust, several lakhs of locusts could be caught easily.
