Moved By Kashmir Floods, Srinagar Boy Designs Drone For Disaster Relief

Abaan Habib, a Class 12 student from Srinagar, has claimed to design a drone that offers relief to people during a disaster. The teenager's creation was recently showcased at a design event near Ahmedabad.

Habib was distraught to see Srinagar city lashed by a massive flood in 2014. Having no access to any disaster aid, he saw his own people in immense pain and helplessness.

Habib has been a drone enthusiast since he was in 8th standard. The tragedy inspired him to build a drone to help those stranded seek basic medical aid and food. A working prototype of his drone was shown at the defence exhibition at Ahmedabad Design Week (ADW) 3.0 organised by a private university near Ahmedabad.

"The mobile app has a panic button that people can press during an emergency," Habib said, according to The Times of India reported.

'Brings Relief Material Within 10 Minutes'

"The drone will trace the location and can bring in disaster relief material like medicines, first aid, and life jackets, within just 10 minutes," he claimed. Currently, Abaan's startup, Sky Robo Drones is being incubated at NIT Srinagar and Jammu & Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute.

Habib learnt to assemble a drone and programme it by browsing the internet, and later placed the order for components. In the beginning, he used an open-source programme that was readily available on the internet to fly the drone.

"Recently, I have tested my own programme to run it, and I have been conducting trials to improve it," Habib said.

He has already tested the drone in real-time during mock drills conducted by State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

"In 2014, when massive floods struck Jammu and Kashmir, many people starved and suffered as disaster relief could not reach them in time," Habib said. "In J&K, disaster aid often reaches late and therefore, I decided to come up with a temporary solution that can keep people going during such calamities," he added.

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