Hyderabad, October 4
As part of a strategy to give a boost to the anti-Maoist operations, the Andhra Pradesh government would press into service an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for a close monitoring of the Naxal activities in deep forests.

The UAV, along with a chopper for rescue operations, has been sanctioned by the Centre to beef up the surveillance set-up. It would start the operations from next month, state DGP V Dinesh Reddy said.

The UAV has been procured at a cost of Rs 30 crore. It will have its base station at Madurapudi in the coastal city of Rajahmundry. “It will help us track down the activities of Naxals even in the thick forests and also send back images,” the DGP said.

The UAV would carry two payloads, one of which would take images and send the same to the control centre in a flash. “The night vision cameras can take pictures at an angle of even 360 degrees. Naxals sometimes cook food in forests and even the smoke can be detected,” the police official said.

The UAV can fly for eight hours at a stretch and would be used to scan four districts of Telangana, the Dhandakaranya forest region, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam districts and also parts of Chhattisgarh and south and central Orissa on the Andhra-Orissa Border (AOB) area.

The other payload carried by the craft will be able to detect voice signals transmitted through VHF and UHF sets and send the message to the control station. “With imagery and voice tracking, our field units would be able to react swiftly against Maoists,” the DGP said.

The Centre has also provided a helicopter which can carry 17 persons at a time. “Moving to interior areas by road takes time. With the help of the helicopter, the personnel can be dropped with the help of ropes and it would also come handy in rescue operations,” he said.

The Union Home Ministry will provide the funds towards operational and maintenance expenses of the chopper. The helicopter can be used for two hours a day. The police estimate that there are around 340 underground Maoist cadres in the state.