Hyderabad: GHMC using drones for spraying to check mosquito menace

Hyderabad: To combat mosquito menace, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has started using drones to spray chemicals on lakes and water bodies, where there is a higher chance of breeding. Six helicopter drones have been assigned to each zone under the civic body to conduct spraying using drones.

Field workers under the guidance of the GHMC's Entomology wing normally spray these anti-mosquito chemicals manually across all ponds and lakes, but their reach is limited. The results are insufficient and not cost-effective in comparison with flying drones, said a GHMC release.

Drones can spray chemicals at the rate of one acre in ten minutes, thereby reaching the remotest and humanly unreachable spots. This will help save time and money for the civic body.

The amount and combinations of chemicals sprayed is based on norms of the National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme. Currently, drone spray work is taking place in dumping yards, colonies, ponds, Musi riverbanks, open plots and lakes where the challenge of mass breeding is high," the release added.