NEW DELHI: Drone hysteria has gripped many Ghaziabad villages. Videos and forwarded messages have whipped up a frenzy about gangs doing recces for burglary with these flying ‘eyes’. At several villages, locals have formed night patrols to keep watch even if they haven’t actually seen a drone.In Kumhera village, a group out on a night patrol says “drone sightings” began a week ago. They make announcements on a megaphone: “Agar kisi ko drone dikhe, turant police ko khabar karen, ya humein bataein.” Drones ‘spying’ on villages? Unlikely. But rumours are swarming over them Resting his stick, a thick one that ends almost at his chin, on the road, Mohit Kumar Sharma draws an arc on the vapid starless monsoon sky with his index finger. “Yahaan se aata hai, wahaan tak jata hai (it comes in from here, flies all the way up to there),” he says, explaining the trajectory of the drone he is talking about, which appeared “lights blinking” at the far end of the sugarcane fields and made a “sinister” swoop over houses in Kumhera, before disappearing. Ten pairs of eyes follow the arc and nod in agreement. “We need to be alert,” says one of Sharma’s companions.
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Another group of locals out on a night patrol – which began a week ago after such “drone sightings” began being reported here – makes announcements through a megaphone. “Agar kisi ko drone dikhe, turant police ko khabar karen, ya humein bataein (if any of you spots a drone, call the cops immediately or tell us),” says a young Kumhera resident who is leading the patrol, eyes peeled on the sky, stick clacking on the road.At nearby Amirpuri Garhi, the patrol party – armed with sticks and axes – cordons off the road as soon as headlights indicate an arriving car. The driver rolls down the window, answers their questions – “where are you from, where are you headed, show us your Aadhaar card” – and is eventually allowed to pass.“It’s a two-way verification,” explains a member of the group who is armed with an axe. “We need to be sure who we are letting in, so we called the person this driver said he was going to meet and confirmed that he was telling us the truth,” he added.At several villages in Muradnagar block of Ghaziabad and those beyond it close to Meerut, night patrols have become a regular feature over the last few days, prompted by a fear that has come from nowhere – of drones. “It’s not like this just here. Go to Amroha, Meerut and Moradabad, and you’ll find the same,” says Mukesh Yadav, a resident of Amirpuri Garhi. “We have videos. People are alert everywhere.”Yadav isn’t wrong. At villages in western UP districts and parts of Uttarakhand as well, claims about drone sightings have triggered panic. “Gangs are working with drone operators. Drones are being dispatched for a recce of houses that are locked or have one or two members in the family. These houses are being targeted,” he adds. Asked if he had seen a drone, Yadav shakes his head. “But I have videos,” he says. “Other people in our village have seen it.” Those with him say the same. “People have seen it. There are videos where you see the drones,” says a resident accompanying Yadav on the patrol.At Kumhera, Sharma hasn’t seen a drone either. “On Sunday, my friend saw them. Our village may be targeted. So, we have come out to protect it,” he says. Amit Kumar is more specific. “On Sunday night, four drones were seen over our village,” he says. “People who saw them made videos and put them in WhatsApp groups to alert others. The drones have different colours, red or green and red or yellow.”In this area, which is in Niwari police station’s jurisdiction, police received around 12 calls on nighttime drone sightings over the last weekend. Subsequent police checks yielded nothing suspicious. A police team was posted in the area as well, but there was no visual confirmation of a drone.But there are, indeed, videos. And some, indeed, show drones. They are all, however, apocryphal and there’s no telling where they are from or who shot them. But these videos have been zipping up and down the social media loop. One, of a drone hovering over houses and farms with excited chatter under it, is on many phones, perhaps the chief carrier of the panic that has been unleashed. And rumours of all kinds float around – about “suspicious strangers” being spotted and armed robbers lurking – stoking mass hysteria. In village after village, it’s these videos and forwards that locals show. It doesn’t seem to matter that no one has actually spotted a drone and can show a photo or a video that they have themselves taken. They are convinced the videos and the forwards circulating are true. Thus the night patrols and watchful eyes that remain glued to the night skies. The patrols begin around 8am and go on till 3am. Bijendra Kumar, the pradhan of Amirpuri Garhi and Kumhera, says he hasn’t seen a drone but let the night patrols happen as an act of caution since there were videos on social media.It’s not that drones don’t fly in rural areas. In some places, farmers use them to spray fertilisers on fields (but not in Ghaziabad, according to officials). People also use them for wedding and other photography. Currently, at least in Ghaziabad, drones are also being used for a floodplain survey of the Hindon, according to Raj Kumar Vern, executive engineer of the irrigation construction division. The Hindon river is, however, some distance away and floodplain mapping is a daytime job. A senior police officer told TOI an inquiry into a pixellated video of a “drone sighting’ that had “gone viral” recently had revealed that the object with blinking lights was actually a close-up shot of a civilian aircraft. “The Hindon airbase is situated here and is equipped with anti-drone technology. Officials at the airbase will take action if any drone is detected on their radar. So far, nothing suspicious has been seen,” says the officer.Besides, the officer adds, flying drones has been banned in Ghaziabad since Operation Sindoor and the restrictions remain in place. Otherwise, to fly a drone, permission is needed from the ACP of that area. Violations are a punishable offence under section 223 (breach of trust) and 351 (acts endangering life) of BNS. Rahul Rathi, a drone operator with Ghaziabad police, explains that only small drones below 249gm can be used by people without the need for registration. These are basic drones with limited use and can fly a very short range, so the operator must be nearby, and would be almost impossible to operate in a village without being noticed.DCP (rural) Surendra Nath Tiwari says police have collected videos from the villagers and sent them for forensic investigation. “We will try to identify the origin of the video and the time and date when it was shot. On every call regarding drones, a police team was sent to the spot, but we have not found any conclusive evidence about drones,” he adds. Additional CP Alok Priyadarshi told TOI locals appear to be forwarding videos that are old or from somewhere else.