Wildlife Collisions to Aircraft in India a Comparative Analysis of Hazardous Species Involved in Different Time Periods

Abstract

Wildlife strikes (mainly birds, but also includes bats and other mammals on the ground) with aircraft isa serious economic and safety concern in the aviation industry. The solution to the problem can be evolved byidentifying the species involved in the incidents/ accidents. In the Indian context, such an attempt was started in1980. In the recent past, the Indian Air Force adopted the DNA Bar-coding technology to identify the species involved. The extent of the problems faced by the country and involvement of different species in various time blocks has been compared with the objective of analyzing changes over different periods to gauge the changes and assess the future requirements. The data indicates that over the years, the number of strikes has increased manifold in the civil aviation sector. The number of species involved in strikes has almost doubled. The serious strikes due to Vultures have nearly disappeared and their place has been mainly taken over by Black Kites. In the recent past, Black Kites are the cause of the highest damages and also have the highest probability of causing damages (61.17%) when struck. Adoption of DNA Barcoding technology has helped to identify the species in incidents where minimal bird remnants were found. Although the number of accidents has decreased, the economical losses continue to rise due to the high cost of modern aircraft.

Bird Strike to Aircrafts An Assessment of Changing Bird Populations at Select Indian Airfields

“…However, a sharp increase in strikes to 85 in the last thirteen years is very evident and a cause of serious concern. The two fatal accidents of IAF (2005 and 2014) involving this species reaffirm their threat for the aircraft in the skies 16 . The available species data from civil airports also indicate the threats from Black Kites.…”

“…It was considered the second-largest hazard after the Vultures 4 . With the decline of the number of Vultures in the environment, Black Kites have become the largest threat in recent times 16,23 . Between 1980 and 1988 (nine years period), it had contributed to 55 incidents.…”

“…One major change that is visible from the data is Black Kites are increasing significantly in the sky. In the absence of vultures, Kites top the list of most damaging wildlife strikes in recent years 16 . A comparison of the monthly abundance of Vultures in the past and the Kites in the past and present (Fig.…”

“…The collected data also indicated that the Red-wattled Lapwing population was markedly high in Sirsa. This species also happened to be among the most hazardous bird species for aviation in India in recent times 16 . As the study was under progress at all three airfields, the population of Lapwing was also considered for temporal analysis and to provide baseline data for future airfield studies.…”

“…There were significant and reliable data available for three selected species that are hazardous to aircraft namely Black Kites (Includes two sub-species which are difficult to be segregated, especially when they are in huge flocks namely Milvus migrans govinda and M migrans lineatus), Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) and Rock Pigeon (Columba livia). They ranked high on the hazardous bird list 16 in India. Figure 2, Fig.…”