Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, May 18: While internet is flooded with videos of Andaman, taken secretly using drone, the local Administration is putting unnecessary restrictions on use of drones on those who are trying to use drone in officially.
Recently some people, who wanted to conduct professional video-shoot of Islands using drones, were either denied or they have canceled their visit themselves after reading about Andaman’s blanket ban on use of drones.
At present if one person is able to shoot videos using drones, undetected, then he is law abiding person and if someone caught using drone, he is offender.
Problem is that due to lack of clear rules and regulation on the use of drones, nobody knows, why drones are banned and in which areas they are banned.
Today there are many drones in which an invisible flying area (barricade) can be created and drone will never leave the flying area. In that case, the Administration must explain why flying drone inside own campus is illegal.
Surprisingly today you can buy any model of drone in India and bring the drone to Andaman but you can’t fly one here.
In mainland India proper DGCA guidelines are available for use of drone and people who need to use drone professionally, can do so, by following the guidelines but in Andaman neither DGCA guidelines nor local Administration’s guidelines are made available to public.
Andaman is a favourite tourist destination and many people plan to bring drones with them for better videos but due to blanket ban on drones, even professionals are unable to plan proper video shoots in Andaman.
In mainland India as per DGCA guidelines one can fly drones from 50 Meter to 200 Meters and above, by getting flying license, permission from police and flight plan as well as defence clearance, which means that flying drones in Mainland India is legal if permission is taken. Then why local Administration has not come up with any such guidelines for public, professional film makers, video bloggers. Today Youtube Blogger gives maximum global publicity for any tourist destination and most of them use drones.
In past many people were arrested for using drones in Andaman, most of whom are tourists, which gives a bad impression about Andaman Tourism. Instead the Administration should have advertise about proper guidelines and allowed controlled use of drones, which in turn would have given Andaman global publicity as drone cameras brings some of the most incredible camera angles, which leaves public spell bound.
It would be unfair to say that without drones, no one can capture the beauty of Andaman but drone shots make videos unbelievably beautiful upto a global standard. Today in the age of Youtube, every tourist destination is producing spectacular videos of local tourism and we are still struggling with babus and permissions.
Of course Andaman strategically important area but there are many areas, where Administration can easily allow permission to use drones. After all rules in Andaman must not be different from Mainland India as Andaman is a part of India. The only thing we might need to change here is perhaps, mindset of Bureaucrats.
