India had scrambled scores of fighter jets to tackle migratory birds for weeks mistaking them for enemy drones in a sensitive border region.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) deployed fighter aircraft after radars flagged unsolicited intrusion into Indian territories along the border region in the western state of Gujarat.
As soon as the jets started flying, the "enemies" disappeared from the radar, but resurfaced once the jets had gone. These perplexed Indian officials for weeks before they could discover that the "intruders" were actually flocks of migratory birds.
According to an IAF report, cited by The Indian Express, between December 2012 and February 2013, radars had detected the potential targets as "slow-moving tracks of variable heights of 4 to 6 km and variable speed from 100 to 250kmph".
The birds were swift enough to vanish from the radar using strong tail winds in the region.
20/10/13 Vasudevan Sridharan/International Business Times
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) deployed fighter aircraft after radars flagged unsolicited intrusion into Indian territories along the border region in the western state of Gujarat.
As soon as the jets started flying, the "enemies" disappeared from the radar, but resurfaced once the jets had gone. These perplexed Indian officials for weeks before they could discover that the "intruders" were actually flocks of migratory birds.
According to an IAF report, cited by The Indian Express, between December 2012 and February 2013, radars had detected the potential targets as "slow-moving tracks of variable heights of 4 to 6 km and variable speed from 100 to 250kmph".
The birds were swift enough to vanish from the radar using strong tail winds in the region.
20/10/13 Vasudevan Sridharan/International Business Times
