Representational.
Jammu: In a first, the Border Security Force (BSF) in India deployed drone-mounted ground penetration radars to check unmapped underground tunnels at the India-Pakistan International Border here, PTI reported.
The action, carried out using indigenous gadgets, was made as part of the below-the-earth tunnel detection size run by BSF to make sure no terrorist sneaks through them into Indian territory. Tunnels like these are also used to smuggle narcotics, arms and ammunition.
In the past three years, the force has unearthed at least five tunnels in about 192 km of Jammu borders (Ind-Pak IB).
A senior BSF official told PTI, "The force has procured a smart technical tool to counter the menace of underground tunnels that have been reported regularly along the Jammu region of the India-Pakistan IB. More than one drone-mounted ground-penetration radar has been deployed in the region to check these clandestine structures used by terrorists to infiltrate India from Pakistan."
The radars, mounted on drones, emit strong radio waves to check for the presence of tunnels under the ground and map them, it is learnt.
An officer said, "One problem that these radars come across is the amount of dust that generates due to the flying of drones, and they clash with the radio waves being emitted by the radars to scan the earth below. This is a start, and the new tool is still to be called accurate."
The gadget's efficacy is under monitoring at the moment.
The 192-km long Jammu IB-- out of the total 2,289-km long front running down towards Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The area is prone to tunnel-based infiltration due to the loose soil structure here. At least ten tunnels were detected here in the last ten years.