A drone loaded with antibiotics, paracetamol and anti-allergy tablets took off from Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday and flew eight minutes to land at a primary health centre in Tholang, 20km away.
The flight was part of efforts by India’s health research department to assess the feasibility of drone applications for healthcare in high-altitude, remote regions. The drone ferried more than 100 units of essential medicines to Tholang, reaching altitudes of 14,500 feet and encountering temperatures below minus 15ºC during the flight, officials with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.
On its return journey, the drone carried blood and sputum samples for various diagnostic tests. The round trip, which takes about two hours by road, lasted 26 minutes, including the time for loading and unloading the drone at the two sites, said Sumit Aggarwal, a scientist at the ICMR’s epidemiology and communicable diseases division.
The ICMR project seeks to determine whether drones can be used to streamline the distribution of essential medical provisions from hospitals in Keylong — the administrative centre in Lahaul and Spiti — to primary health centres in Darcha, Gondhal, Gemur, Gondhal, Jahalma, Shansha, Sissu, Thirot and other sites in the high-altitude region.
The ICMR had two years ago introduced the use of drones to deliver Covid-19 vaccines in hard-to-reach terrains in Manipur, Nagaland and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the regulatory authority for aircraft, and other authorities had in 2021 granted permission to fly the vaccine delivery drones beyond the visual line of sight after initial studies by the ICMR and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
The Union civil aviation ministry had in August 2021 notified a set of “liberalised drone rules” to facilitate the growth of the drone industry, which has potential applications in agriculture, infrastructure, surveillance, emergency response, transport and law enforcement.
Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, initially adopted for the defence and aerospace sectors, have expanded worldwide over the years into commercial domains. Multiple countries, including Ghana, Malawi and Rwanda, have been using drones to transport medical supplies since the Covid-19 pandemic.
