The Haryana Police has become the first police force in India to use drones to launch tear gas devices. The Haryana Police dropped tear gas shells from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) on protesting farmers at Shambhu Barrier on the Punjab-Haryana boundary on Tuesday.
The State government used drones made by Drone Imaging and Information Service of Haryana Limited (DRIISHYA), a public limited company incorporated in 2021, a police official told The Hindu. According to a Haryana government press release of April 4, 2023, the drones are designed for “surveying infrastructure projects, monitoring of agriculture and horticulture crops, and surveillance of sensitive areas for security purposes.” The company is located at Karnal.
The drone-based tear smoke launcher to control riots and for other crowd control situations was developed by the Tear Smoke Unit (TSU) of the Border Security Force (BSF) in 2022 but it has not been sold to any state police force yet.
