Runway 0826, 0545 hrs: It is a few minutes to the crack ofdawn and the radio crackles at Air Traffic Control INS Hansa. There is an earlymorning domestic flight lined up for landing somewhere over Ponda and there isa huge flock of pariah kites and crows on the eastern side of the runway. Thealarm goes off as ATC’s crack Bird Hazard Control Unit swings into action.Pyrocartridges go off and zon guns scare the birds away as a Boeing 737carrying 180 passengers gently touches down. The passengers are unaware thatthey were minutes away from disaster and BHCU is back in its station waitingfor the next flight. Ensuring bird hazard safety at Dabolim is a thankless job,but integral to it.
“We don’t know if the recent Chetak chopper crash was due toa bird hit, but landing an airliner or a helicopter at Dabolim with the birdhazards makes it extremely risky especially at slow speed prior to landing”says a worried Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of Naval Staff and amongstthe best aviators to have flown off the naval air base of INS Hansa. Hisconcern is not unfounded. On the eastern side of Dabolim airport runwayapproach, a large pile of garbage lies unattended as crows and storks feast. Alittle ahead on the culvert over the railway line near Alto Dabolim, garbagepiles next to the National Highway 17B attracts flocks of birds and liesquarely on the flight path.
Most of the aircrafts land at Dabolim Airport from thelandward eastern side. The once barren landscape has now become home to realestate developments and garbage strewn all over the landscape. With villages ofChicalim, as well as Sancoale not knowing what to do with their garbage, thesituation gets even worse. “They have actually permitted a slaughterhouse andopen air fish vendors near Dabolim Junction where the aircraft touches just afew metres away”, informs Indian Navy’s Chief Staff Officer Commodore LalitAgarwalla. Agarwalla has been in close touch with the state administrationurging them to seek an early solution to garbage menace around Dabolim Airportthat result in bird hits.
Ironically, Goa’s busy charter season begins when themonsoons end. This is the time when birds start searching for worms and rodentshidden amongst bushy outgrowths and thick green foliage on the slopes ofDabolim. Predators including Brahminy and Pariah kites and Lapwings feast onthe slopes of Sancoale overlooking the airport. The birds also feast in thedozen odd garbage dumps that have sprung up alarmingly in a stretch thatextends from Ponda in the East where the aircraft start their descent and theouter walls of the airport. This in direct violation of Indian Aircraft Rules1937, 81B that prohibits depositing of rubbish and other polluted materialswithin a kilometre of the aerodrome.
It is not that Indian Navy that manages the airfield did notinform the state administration in the past. The crash landing of Aeroflot 767in November 2011 resulted in intensive bird hazard safety related discussionsin the state. The Russian Charter carrying 218 people burst seven of its eighttyres as a worried District Collector asked for more proof when an irate Navyprotested against indiscriminate garbage dumping around the airport. The statehad this information earlier than that. “Bombay Natural Heritage Society haddone bird mapping around Dabolim in the late eighties and the report was alsosubmitted to the State” says former INS Hansa Commanding Officer CommodoreSanjoy Gupta. Gupta thanks the fact that there are no vultures in the vicinityor else fatalities would have been huge.
The Navy, however has learnt to live with the dozen oddgarbage hotspots around its’ own airfield. Military crafts do not fly duringthe Red period, which is at the crack of dawn or at twilight when bird activityis maximum. “But then the airlines have to fly due to their fixed schedules”,reminds Cmde. Agarwalla. The bigger aircrafts carrying people are sitting ducksfor the hungry birds.
