Republic Day parade is an annual event to showcase country’s cultural and military prowess. Indian Air Force uses this occasion to display their latest acquisitions including missile-laden fighter aircrafts, transport planes and helicopters. IAF formations fly past along the 55-kms long parade route. They fly low on Kartavya Path during the parade for the spectators including the President of India to see their acrobatics and machanisations.
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But, Delhi’s skyline is full of birds, mostly kites, posing a grave hazard to the lives of the pilots and thousands of spectators turning out to watch Republic Day parade. Over the last few years, the population of Black kites have escalated mostly owing to absence of any natural predators and abundance of food resources. A preliminary study conducted by the Air Force over the rooftop of AIR headquarter – the epicentre of fly-past – showed a 150% increase in Black kite population in the critical area of formation display.
The threat is not just a scare. There have been many cases of bird hits during practice sessions of fly past during last few years. In 2020 during a practice flypast a MiG-29 suffered a bird strike breaking the navigation light of the aircraft. Again in 2023, during a practice session, 2 aircrafts – a Sukhoi SU-30 and a Rafale aircraft suffered from bird strikes.
Considering the exponential price of these aircrafts, each bird hit has potential to cost billions of rupees to the state exchequer. A Sukhoi-30 MKI costs Rs 848 crore, each Rafael costs Rs 670 crore and a MiG-29 was valued at upwards of Rs 200 crore.
This is why, Indian Air Force in collaboration with Delhi Forest Department has at last, found a non-invasive solution to take Black Kites away from the flight path of Republic Day parade. They have been tossing small meat pieces at 15 places in Delhi – at a distance of at least two kms on either side of the flight path of IAF planes – since last five days.
The buffalo meat is tossed in the air for almost two hours – starting 11.40 am – to coincide the time of fly-past in Republic Day parade. Kites love raw meat. Having gotten used to free meals, kites start waiting for meat-tossing exercise since early morning.
Locations based on a long-term research study on the home range of Black kites in consideration with the distance from the flypast route have been selected. These sites lie between South Campus of Delhi University to Ghazipur landfill. Most of the ‘meat-tossing’ sites are in Central Dehi areas, in and around Lutyen’s Delhi.
