Mystery surrounds the missing drone

BY Risidra Mendis

Mystery still surrounds the sudden disappearance of the drone (unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that was sent out by the Wildlife Minister last week to survey illegal activities in National Park.

The ministry and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) have appealed to the public to return the drone if found and have asked the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) to help locate it.
Apart from the fact that the last recording of the drone, before it disappeared, was from the Lunugamwehera National Park, no indication of its whereabouts are known.

The drone, with a wing span of one metre and about 0.76 metres in length cost about US$ 2,000. However, the drone for this project was a gift from Singapore.

The unmanned aerial vehicle was first sent to survey the Udawalawe National Park for poaching and illegal cultivations on 22 February 2014. But after having completed a successful survey over the National Park, the aircraft had gone missing while on a survey of the Lunugamwehera National Park on 23 February 2014.

The missing drone is believed to have, either been shot down by poachers or, crashed due to a technical failure.

Advisor to the Minister, Prof. Sarath Kotagama however ruled out the possibility of the drone being shot down and said that due to the Safety Zone not being activated on the drone it would have strayed to another location.

“There is no way the drone could have been shot down because nobody knew the direction the drone would take when surveying the National Parks. We thought the drone would survey only the areas programmed on its system and that is why we never thought of activating the Safety Zone option. The Safety Zone option on this aircraft was programmed for Malaysia because a similar programme was done in that country,” Prof. Kotagama said.

He added that if the Safety Zone was set for Sri Lanka the drone would have returned to the location from where it was launched and not disappear. “Even though the Safety Zone of the drone was programmed for Malaysia the aircraft couldn’t have gone that far because the battery power would last only 45 minutes,” Prof. Kotagama noted.

The idea of using an unmanned aerial vehicle to survey National Parks, first came up when Associate Professor Ted Webb and his student Dr. Inoka Kudawidanage spoke to Prof. Kotagama.

He added that when Wildlife Resources Conservation Minister Vijith Vijayamuni Zoysa was told about using drones to survey the National Parks he agreed, and plans were made to bring down a drone from Singapore together with a team who specializes in this technology.

Successfully used
“About three to four years ago smaller versions of drones have been successfully used to fly at low altitudes and get high resolution pictures. We thought a drone would be the ideal solution to check on the illegal ganja cultivations and poaching in National Parks as it is difficult for DWLC officers to go inside National Parks and search for these illegal cultivations,” the Professor said.

He explained that a team of five experienced officers arrived from Singapore, prior to the launch of the drone and trained DWLC officers at the Giritale Training School on how to control the drone.

“During takeoff and landing the drone has to be controlled by a remote. But once the aircraft is in the air it automatically switches to auto pilot and is controlled by a computer programme. When the drone returns to its original location, if the remote is not used to land unmanned aerial vehicle it will circle in the air at that location awaiting instructions,” Prof. Kotagama explained.

He noted that this drone was flying at an altitude of 150 to 200 meters and at a speed of 15 kilometres per hour and that height and speed was more than enough to get some clear high resolution pictures of the affected areas.

Another ministry official told Ceylon Today that at a progress meeting held at the ministry in July 2013, Zoysa had told DWLC Director General H.D. Ratnayake to get the assistance of the SLAF and check on the illegal activities in National Parks.

“But when Ratnayake did not respond to this request Zoysa asked ministry officials to explore other options. “Even though it is presently believed that the drone went missing due to a technical error it is also possible that the aircraft could have been shot down since it was flying at a low altitude, as there are many people who are against such a project since ganja cultivations and poaching involves a lot of money these days,” the official said.

A DWLC official explained that it was the Department that came up with the idea of sending a drone to survey the illegal activities in National Park.

SLAF Media Spokesperson Air Commodore Andrew Wijesooriya told Ceylon Today that the SLAF will not conduct a search for the drone since it is a small craft.

http://www.ceylontoday.lk/90-57557-news-detail-mystery-surrounds-the-missing-drone.html