KOCHI: In an attempt to curb the raging protest against the entry of young women to the hill shrine, a Navy helicopter has been deployed for aerial surveillance at Sabarimala on Monday.
“The state government has requested to provide a helicopter for aerial surveillance at Sabarimala due to security concerns. Accordingly we deployed a helicopter on Monday morning.
ASP Navneet Sharma boarded the aircraft and conducted aerial surveillance of Sabarimala. The state government has requested provide the service for a period of time at regular intervals. We have assured to deploy the copter is there are no other missions,” said Defence spokesperson Commander Sridhar Warrier.
However, he said there was no request from the state government to deploy helicopters for transporting women devotees to Sabarimala.
Meanwhile, former Deputy Conservator of Forests N C Induchoodan said the decision to use helicopters for aerial surveillance at Sabarimala was in violation of the provisions of the Indian Forest Act.
“The temple is situated in the Protect Tiger area and flying helicopters in this area is banned. The noise of the helicopter may panick the wild animals and they will run helter-skelter. The animals may stray into Sannidhanam posing threat to the pilgrims,” he said.
“There is no representative from the Environment Minsitry in the Monitoring Committee for implementation of the Sabarimala Master Plan. This has led to violations of the forest rules,” said Induchoodan.