Action against illegal granite quarrying in Melur taluk virtually took to the skies on Friday.
Daksha, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by the Anna University’s Madras Institute of Technology, was roped in to survey thousands of hoarded granite blocks and quarries spread over hundreds of acres in the taluk. The UAV was used to record aerial footages after officials cited difficulties in carrying out manual surveillance.
A team headed by Associate Professor K Senthilkumar of MIT’s Aerospace department operated Daksha in Ovamalai village on Friday. The video footage recorded by cameras fitted to the UAV was transmitted live to computers on ground.
Interestingly, the UAV’s video footage revealed a secret room and three chests, hidden in rows of granite blocks. No incriminating material was found in the room, a source said. However, a stack of answer sheets of the Madurai Kamaraj University was found in one of the chests. A container hidden between the blocks was also unearthed.
Police suspect that documents or cash that had been stashed away there might have been removed after their probe began. Researchers say they could quantify granite blocks hoarded in Melur, using the UAV.
Officials intensified a probe on illegal quarries after granite baron and PRP Export’s owner P Palanisamy surrendered following charges levelled against him.
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