IIT Kanpur students, professor penalised for flying drone in Corbett

Four students and a professor of IIT-Kanpur’s Earth Sciences department were penalised on Wednesday for illegally flying a drone camera in the restricted area of the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR).

On Tuesday, Professor Javed N. Malik of IIT-Kanpur’s Earth Sciences department entered CTR’s Bijrani range to operate the drone camera through a mobile phone, with the four students watching from a few metres away, when the forest officials spotted them, Range Officer for Bijrani, Raj Kumar said.

The team was asked to pay a fine of Rs 40,000 for violation under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, on Wednesday.

“We penalised the team for entering the tiger reserve’s Bijrani range and operating a drone camera in it, that too without permission,” Kumar said, adding that the forest officials had seized the drone camera and the mobile phone that was being used to operate it.